


Tales of Radiance

by wanttoflyhigh



Category: Tales of Phantasia
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Drama, F/F, F/M, Humor, M/M, Major Character Injury, Multi, Romance, Spiritual, Supernatural - Freeform, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 19:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 41,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2703965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanttoflyhigh/pseuds/wanttoflyhigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One day when a summoning goes awry, Cless Alvein has a literal Demon King brought to his room, and from there hilarity turns into something else dire when he as well as his friends become caught up in it. Ensemble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alma

**Author's Note:**

> Hello welcome to my recent addition to Tales of Phantasia fanfic! I hope you all enjoy this one, I did try my best at it but it came out slightly different than I expected... but here you go! ^-^

Cless yawned a little as he walked into class today, and found himself actually on time as opposed to being late like he usually was when he attended school. The teacher himself was actually surprised enough to make a remark before the late bell went off and the sandy-haired blond sighed to himself, putting a hand on the side of his head. He murmured, as the rest of the class giggled or chuckled, “Yeah, thanks so much...”

 

Then, the teacher introduces a new person to their class this year...someone named Mint Adnade. He couldn’t help but stare and blush for a moment, until he found that she sat a long ways from him and he sighed, snapping back away from his mystification.

 

Then he took a gander around, seeing a few usual nondescript friends, with the absence of his best friend, Chester. Despite how he looked, he knew that his bestie tried to get a perfect attendance record besides being on top of his studies so he could get into the best schools -- whilst diligently being a part of the Archery Club. Poor guy must be dismayed about this. He mused to himself that Chester happened to be quite successful in all of these things and thus was a very popular male amongst the others in the school. In comparison he supposed that he could try to step it up...

 

Well, Cless _was_ a part of the Fencing Club, but in this day and age people somehow considered it to be ‘lame’ as well as to look ‘girly’ or at least at Toltus High School they did. At the thought, he put his hand on his chin and sighed to himself.

 

He even did his best to study pretty damn hard but he was also one of those people that wasn’t very good at testing, no matter how long they studied which sucked but hey he couldn’t help it, could he?

 

The blond realized he had practically zoned out for a second, and that the teacher was once again glaring at him. He grinned sheepishly back and said, “Ahaha, sorry, I was just...”

 

In the next moment he was standing outside of class, holding two buckets of water and gave a large sigh. His life was so hard. He sort of wondered he could just sort of sneak a text to his best friend and see what happened with him. The senior sighed loudly to himself; what was he going to do when his teacher complained about him again?

 

Cless immediately dispelled such thoughts straight out of his head as he carefully and surreptitiously set down one of the buckets before beginning to text Chester to find out what’s up. He then quickly puts his cell away before picking up the bucket again and just in the nick of time too because shortly after his teacher opens the door. “Have you learnt your lesson?”

 

The blond nodded and as soon as the teacher turns around he mutters, “That you’re nothing but a nutter butter.”

 

“What was that?”  
  


Cless smiled sheepishly and replied, “Oh, I was muttering about my mom asking me to buy some peanut butter later on...Mr. Lester.”

 

The teacher sighed. “Alright, alright. I’ll believe you this time and try to pay attention.”

 

...

 

Cless sighed as he finally returned home and gave a stretch. His life today had been so hard that he was glad that today had already ended. It was already pretty late due to his after-school activities but now he had homework to do. With that in mind, and saying a good evening to his parents after some dinner, he found that it was easy to breeze through the homework tonight. He smiled to himself a bit as he contemplated what to do tomorrow... after all it was a Saturday and he had plans since it was a day off.

 

At the thought he smiled to himself and prepared to dress himself in his PJs, sitting on his bed. As he did so, he found that his room started to suddenly just...glow. He turned his head, eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he saw the floor have a circle with mysterious runic symbols appear. He blinked blearily and became convinced he was having some kind of screwed up dream. Especially so when in the next moment a woman with long blond hair and a tall, shapely figure appeared before him.

 

...Wait no, it was a man. Still, it was a very, beautiful and yet masculine man once he stopped looking at the being’s legs or face. Plus there was that ethereal glow...

 

Cless mentally slapped himself at his own eyes wandering. What the hell was wrong with him?!

 

The man looked down on the stupefied man before him, and then decided that this human must have been the one who summoned him after years of being sealed away by other humans. For a good reason, one might argue if they knew what he had done to deserve it, and for a moment he gave a quick, lingering look over the half-naked human in front of him. Regardless, he spoke to the human thusly, “I am the Demon King Dhaos and you have released myself from that accursed seal. It is not often I am able to grace my servants with my presence let alone give you the honor of being one of the few human servants I will allow into my service instead of killing you. I cannot sense any foolish desire for you to use my power to your own ends, and so I presume you are already prepared to bend yourself to my will.”

 

Cless gave him a Look. “... You know I was wondering if I should have waited a few hours before I slept, and next time I’ll know better next time.”

 

Dhaos began to chuckle darkly. “Human, rejoice. For this isn’t a dream, it is reality.”

 

The blond-haired highschooler continued to just stare, and pinch himself. No, this wasn’t working... oh god was this one of those realistic dreams? This was starting to get him worried. Wait no it was still a dream, obviously. Meaning he could do whatever he wanted. Phew, problem solved because NONE OF THIS COULD BE REALLY HAPPENING.

 

Cless read somewhere on the internet that one way to end dreams is to take control of the situation by your own hands or do something so weird your mind would wake you up. The smaller blond made his final decision and stood up before walking over to Dhaos, before grabbing him by the shoulders with some effort in a fluid motion. Then he heaved himself up for a kiss, the whole string of action catching Dhaos off-guard.

 

“...........”

 

The whole act was so surreal, that Dhaos himself had a moment where he believed he literally hallucinated this moment, but no... those lips pressing against his own were just as real as his presence was to this human’s. No one has dared to do something so personal with the King of Demons, let alone the mere act of _kissing_. As a result, his mind had blanked completely, and the human pulled away to look at him with a grin. Then, with each moment that passed that grin faded some until he fainted.

 

“...”

 

Dhaos stared down at the unconscious human, debating whether he should truly kill him or not. However...

 

He raised his fingers to touch his own lips, feeling this odd tingling sensation still present, and only then did he feel his cheeks warm. What has this human done to him?

 

He will find out soon enough.

 

...

 

Cless groaned, opened his eyes as the light filtered in through his windows. He looked around. Okay, no sign of weird, levitating attractive guys that he kissed for SOME DUMB REASON but who cares it was obviously just a dream so he’s still alright. He sighed and rose to his feet, before beginning to slide off his pants, which he only had on as a result of him only meeting half-way to dress in PJs. He began to reach towards the top drawer to get a fresh pair of boxers, and began sliding his own off...

 

“Human--”

 

That’s all that is even uttered as Cless turns his head a bit to see Dhaos standing before him and the highschool male yells in surprise, interrupting the sentence.

 

...

 

Cless’ parents were downstairs, getting ready for their jobs. His mother inquired, “Miguel, what do you think that was?”

 

Cless’ father wiped away a single tear. “He’s finally growing up, that’s what.”

 

...

 

After Cless had finished getting actually decent he glared at the floating blond in front of him and asked, “You couldn’t have waited until I was finished dressing?! What kind of guy just walks in someone who’s naked?!”

 

Dhaos said, “...I teleported. Besides, I didn’t know you were indecent. You have only to blame yourself on that count, human.”

 

Cless’ face turned red as he practically exploded. “For one thing THAT’S NOT THE POINT! Teleport, walk, it might as well be the same thing because I have no clue what’s going on and why yesterday wasn’t a fever dream! For another, that wasn’t my fault and how do I know you weren’t just being some demonic pervert?!”

 

“You’re the one who...suddenly kissed me first.”

 

All Cless could think was that it sounded like a vaguely childish retort, but the way Dhaos said it made it come off as still regal-like. It was infuriating.

 

A vein appeared on Cless’ forehead before he ran a hand down his face as he continued to be incredibly embarrassed. Well at least the guy he kissed was kind of really attr-- no. Not going there. Nope. Why this. Why does his life have to take such an awful turn? Then he sighed and said, “You know what? Forget that happened okay?! House, Dhaos, whatever your name is...”

 

Dhaos stared pointedly at Cless as he replied, “As you humans say, ‘for one thing’, no. I won’t forget,” during which the younger blond begins to drown in mortification, “And you are my servant. You will refer to myself as Lord Dhaos and you will assist in my conquering of this pathetic world. Do you understand, human?”

 

The smaller blond groaned. “Who said I was your servant?! Look, I think you got the wrong guy, _Dhaos_.”

 

Said demonic lord peered down at the human, looking very much unconvinced. “I sense a gathering of magic from within you in particular in this house, and seeing as the summoning cannot be done without someone possessing the capability, that would make you a liar. Humans try to get out of events that suddenly prove to be not to their liking, how typical.”

 

Cless crossed his arms, huffing. “Look, _you_... I already said I have nothing to do with your crazy plan to be some super evil guy, because no thanks!!”

 

Dhaos’ eyes narrowed. “How _dare_ you refuse me. If you refuse to be of use to me then I will simply dispose of you.”

 

The blond-haired boy put up his fists and stared him in the eye. “Then in that case, Demon Lord or not I’m not afraid to fight you!”

 

At the display, the demon just was floored enough that he suddenly decided he was so stupid it would be a waste of time killing him. Besides, he was still curious about what was he thinking truly, pulling a move like that much earlier and the magical energy coming from this boy. Dhaos replied flatly, “You look like a fool. Your stance is wrong, and you seem like you’re suited for another style of combat.”

 

Cless flushed and quickly stood upright. “Yeah, I fight with a sword usually, I mean I’ve taken a lot of lessons, most from my dad and some from the club...”

 

It doesn’t take very long for Dhaos to come to a decision. “Very well. I know I will propose a challenge for you instead. You have one month to convince me as to why I should _not_ conquer this world, and enslave the human race. If you should fail, you will become my servant, to do my every bidding.”

 

Then, the younger male said, “If I win, though, you agree to cut out this whole thing and live a peaceful life with me.”

 

For a moment, Dhaos found himself caught with surprise before smirking. “..... How laughable. A Demon King living a peaceful life? You sound so very naive, human. As you have accepted my challenge, I have bound you to your word, and should you go against it, you will be punished.”

 

Then, Cless grinned at him. “Well it looks like that’s that! Let’s go visit my friends, I did tell them I was going to come over and watch some videos with them...”

 

“How can you be so upbeat? You do know what you’re getting yourself int--”

 

Cless interrupted, “--I doubt freaking out and stuff would do me any good so you should probably stop dwelling on it. Let’s go!”

 

Dhaos glared at him. “I need not visit your human friends.”

 

Getting an idea, the shorter blonde smirked as he replied, “Well okay, be a chicken. I don’t really care either way.”  
  


“...Human, you _will_ learn to treat me with respect!”

 

...

 

Dhaos forced Cless to take a detour in order to bring him to a modern day clothing store instead after that because he wanted to blend in. He just needed to know the fashion styles, to be honest. He teleported Cless (who was unnerved by this) to a few before finally one store that had something for someone his stature that _he_ somewhat liked. However, while the demon was looking through clothing, he happened to turn his head and found Cless was no longer by his side. This naturally incurred his ire.

 

That foolish human was already on his own probably going nuts in the store, and he figured that he should forget about looking for him. A demon king shouldn’t have to go searching for his servants, they should come to him. At the thought, he picked up something very frilly and raised an eyebrow. It was deceptive to him sometimes how humans can make something look so nice but yet feel so uncomfortable. What were the fools thinking?

 

He forcibly pulled aside associates to inquire the prices, before taking a few selections and going to stand there to wait. It continued like that for an hour before he was very nonplussed-- if he was left behind by that conniving human he would make him wish he were dead. With that in mind, Dhaos began to look all over the large store, leaving no stone unturned, but to his disappointment and growing anger, he found not a sign of Cless.

 

_That fool! If he wished to leave in the first place he should’ve informed me at least before just --_

 

He paused in his thoughts, feeling a cold chill come over him and narrowed his eyes. Someone else was using some form of magic in this building. Out of pure curiosity he couldn’t help but follow the trail, throwing the clothes onto the floor for the poor employees to pick up. It lead him into the back and he spotted a blood trail that he had a feeling belonged to a human.

 

Dhaos hurries over and finds that it’s just some nameless human who’s been ... what appears to be stabbed to death. However, he knows that it’s too early to be relieve--

 

He pauses in thought. Surely he’s not _that_ invested in such a human, and he simply moves on from that, finally coming out to an alleyway with Cless pinned up against a brick wall with knives. Someone had been skillfully throwing knives at him and ran...maybe when they sensed the demon coming. Said blond gives Dhaos a sheepish smile and a strained wave, but yet the culprit is not in sight.

 

The Demon King sighs. “Cancel your date with the human, we head back to your home to discuss this matter in the strictest of confidence.”

 

Cless’ face burned exceedingly red as he shouted, “I-It’s not a date! It--”  
  


“Spare me your...overreacting. I did not mean it in the romantic sort.

 

...

 

Cless sighed to himself as he closed his cellphone after listening to how disappointed his childhood best friend sounded. This whole week was summing up to be a total wash already and he knocked on his door after he realized he did the brilliant thing... which was forgetting his keys. The door, however, wound up opening on its own, creepily. As he walked in, a wet drop fell on his nose, and he would’ve wondered if it was just a small leak if it wasn’t for the sight in front of him: the bloody, mangled corpses of his parents. For a second, it felt like a nightmare, and Cless felt his world tilting until he had hit the floor as well as darkness overcoming him.

 

“...”

 

Dhaos blinked, before picking up the blond-haired boy and putting him into his room, after taking his cellphone, as well as looking it over. Perhaps his friend would know what to do with the bodies and at that he tried to figure it out. He somehow made it to the contacts page with considerable attempts and thereafter a few more mistakes got a hold of Chester who answered with, “Hello, this is Chester Barklight, who is this?”

 

The Demon King said, “Your best friend needs your help... with something. It can only be done in person. Come to his house. _Now._ ”

 

Then thinking that sufficed, he hung up after pressing a few of the numbers and getting a confused noise from the blue-haired male. The male in question stared at his cellphone, wondering at that deep voice before rushing over. Granted, it took a half an hour, but when he arrived, he wasn’t expecting the door unlocked. Even worse, was the sight within that greeted him.

 

Instantly, Chester dialed 9-1-1.

 

...

 

The blue-haired male allowed his best friend to stay over his house temporarily... and considering it’s large size, it wasn’t too farfetched to have Cless make use of the guest room. Said blond seemed to rebound back after the initial shock, but he knew that it was an act, but he didn’t know what to do. What, was he supposed to confront him and ask him why he was faking, therefore making him more upset? Plus, there was that weird voice that _wasn’t_ Cless nor anyone within the house, and yet knew who he was...

 

As he paced back and forth in his room, he just decided when he stopped that what he had to do was be there for his best friend, nothing more, nothing less. Then he’d gradually open up to him should he need to, or something like that... or Chester would just ask one small thing at a time. With that decision made, the bluenette headed towards the door, and walked straight into someone’s chest that wasn’t there a moment ago. He quickly stumbled back in surprise. “W-what the hell!? Who are you?!”

 

Dhaos looked down on the blue-haired human and said, “I am ... “ he paused, thinking of something, and continued, “... Cless’ Guardian angel. I’m the one who informed you as to what happened.”

 

Chester stared, blinking, and pinched himself a couple of times. Then he slapped himself in the face. Nope, still not a dream. This all but caused the blond to stare at him like he was a big blithering moron and he could feel his face flush. “Look, you can understand why I’m confused okay? I didn’t even know such things really existed but--”

 

Dhaos didn’t seem to care, just as long as he bought the lie and replied, “--do something about my human.”

 

“Since when was he yours?! Don’t go around claiming people like that.”

 

Dhaos gave Chester a very unimpressed look, making the archer feel silly. It was to cover up the fact the blond had meant to say ‘the’ but ‘my’ came out instead; the only way to act now was as if what Chester had said was very ridiculous in order to possibly make him want to forget the moment ever happened.

 

...

 

Cless had tried to forget about the murder for a little bit. He sort of had it in his mind that he needed to distance himself from that sort of thing first and act like everything was fine. He couldn’t go around crying about it and allowing him to affect as he went about things -- however he was paradoxically allowing it to do just that. Even though he didn’t mean for it to do so, he became more serious about his classes and scored high marks. His concentration in his fencing classes made him seemingly unbeatable, but he went out of his way to talking to anyone. He decided that next week he will try to become stronger and be ready to ask Dhaos about who killed his parents as well as why.

 

The blond found himself being cornered by someone and their friends who thought it was funny during lunch break to bother him. “So I heard your parents died... me and my amigos over here were wondering if you were the one who killed them yourself! Hahaahahaha!”

 

Cless pulled his fist back.

 

Dhaos sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, watching this on from the Astral Plane. Really, humans were always despicable, no matter the time, and this seemed no exception. He watched Cless beat them down with a surprising amount of efficiency and later earn a ‘few days off’ for his trouble. The Demon King started to work his magic while the blond stayed within Chester’s home.

 

The two of them appeared in a white space, causing Cless to look mildly surprised, and Dhaos of course had been ready so that it wasn’t even an issue for him who had done it so many times. He starts it off by saying, “Human, you have magic power within you ... the amount of which is considered unusual for your species. I am not sure what it’s purpose is yet, but I am sure that people will be hunting you just for that. Therefore I will teach you how to properly fight with a blade when your opponent can do the same as well as use magic. When you are not fencing, you practice with me. Understand?”

 

Cless eagerly accepted the conditions, as Dhaos summoned an illusionary fighter with a sword. This went on for every day, even after Cless’ fencing practice when he finally returned to school (he insisted). Chester became curious and asked about Cless’ disappearance after school for a few more hours since the blond always was interrupted in some manner whenever he tried to ask him. “The human needs to practice his fighting.”

 

Chester replied, “That’s all well and good, but have you considered his state of mind? He’s going to push himself until he breaks or something. If you’re going to be training him then you’re going to train me too!”

 

Dhaos scoffed, looking at the blue-haired human with a hint of condescension, “Human, you are not worthy.”

 

The blue-haired man smiled to himself as he said, “Very well, I had a feeling you’d say something like that.”

 

It was after archery practice... so naturally he still had his quiver and arrows with him. So quickly he knocked an arrow and fired one off at Dhaos, and the Demon King sneered before controlling the wind currents in the air via magic to send the arrow right back at Chester.

 

“...!”

 

_Twang._

 

A blade made the arrow bounce off of metal instead and then when the weapon was lowered, it revealed an angry looking Cless Alvein. “Dhaaaaos! What is the meaning of this?!”

 

Dhaos folded his arms, looking annoyed as the blue-haired archer snickered, thinking he was off the hook. “He attacked me first.”

 

Cless then turned his anger on Chester. “And _why_ did you do that?!”

 

The blue-haired male suddenly realized this was kind of his fault, but-- damned if he wasn’t going to get something out of this. “Your Guardian Angel won’t let me train with you, which is absolutely stupid! What was I supposed to do?!”

 

Now the sandy-haired blond was snickering, looking at Dhaos. “...Guardian Angel, really? If that was how you really felt--”

 

The Demon King’s cheeks briefly colored a faint pink in a blink and miss it, as he retorted harshly, “-- _Human, let there be no mistake: I feel nothing for you but a large amount of disdain and grudging acceptance. Do not make my opinion of you become even more low due to your insolence._ ”

 

There was a collective awkward silence between the three before Chester decided he should put in his two cents. “You know he’s a hell of a lot more demon-like than an angel.”

 

Cless helplessly shrugged, not knowing why Dhaos saw the need to hide his title. Maybe it was some kind of ‘coming into power’ thing. He said, “Oh yeah, which reminds me. You’re going to let him train with us.”

 

Dhaos shortly replied, “Very well, but now that he’s participating with you, he will be expected to participate in every battle from now on.”

 

Chester smirked and put his hands on his hips. “I can handle anything.”  
  


The Demon King asked, “Even demons?”

 

The blue-haired archer shot back snarkily, “Yeah, even people like you.”

 

A vein popped on Dhaos’ head.

 

...

 

Chester nursed the bump on his head, groaning. “Cless, why did I say that? Whyyy... not even the pain medicine dulls it. Is it normal for someone to be able to hit that hard? I think I might have a concussion!”

 

Cless sighed as he put a bag of ice on his head, as the blue-haired friend of his was lying down... it was late anyway. “You know, he’s very sensitive about being made fun of.”

 

The archer couldn’t help but give Cless a Look. “Yeah but he didn’t hit _you_ on the head when you made a comment.”  
  


The blond snorted. “You should know why he didn’t. Besides, at that point you were just asking for it. I mean... it is fun to say things and see how he reacts sometimes because he’s so quiet and reserved otherwise. Or you know, kind of really condescending. I get the feeling the guy’s never really made many friends.”

 

Chester raised a brow and asked sarcastically, “No, really? I could have never guessed.”

 

Cless shook his head. “But... really. He’s not so bad, even though he takes awhile to warm up to. I mean, he’s helping us train now, right? And I think it’s cheered me up doing that sort of thing sooner... knowing that I needed to start getting stronger in order to avenge my parents. I mean I still have a hard time getting along with the guy, but I think it’s possible.”

 

With that, Cless did a small wave to Chester and bade him good night before he left the blue-haired male’s room to head into his own. It was fairly quiet and the blond thought it was a good thing because he could just plop onto his bed to fall asleep.

 

Cless dreams of the past and what could be. His mother and father congratulating him on _something_ ; he also dreams of holding their hands. He can hear his mother telling him that she was _so proud of him_. Soon, it comes upon the point of where they’re dead and Dhaos is standing over him. The blond smiles malevolently and says, “Human, your usefulness has passed. I don’t require your presence any longer.”

 

For some reason, those words hurt him the most, and so when he does wake up, he can’t help the way he acts. Dhaos appears in his room and Cless is literally wrapping his arms around him, squeezing him a bit -- the sudden action making The Demon King continue to fail to utter a word such was his surprise. The smaller blond asked, “Dhaos, you’re not going to just suddenly... turn on your word, are you?”

 

Dhaos scoffed, and moved his fingers so that his hand could cup the younger male’s chin, tilting his face upwards when Cless had looked down. “Don’t be foolish, human. We made a deal and we are ending this discussion.”

 

Before Cless could protest or anything, he felt a gloved finger slide across his lower lip, and his face turned slowly red. Dhaos said in a quieter voice, “That was for...earlier. You may feel free to count yourself lucky.”

 

As a result, the smaller blond felt his face turn even more red, his eyes widening some before he came back to his senses, sputtering,“W-Wha-- I didn’t even intend on doing it in the first place!”

 

“I care not of your intentions.”

 

It was starting to feel like they met all over again because Cless was beginning to get annoyed AND flustered. _This guy is such a--_

 

Dhaos’ eying him intensely cut him off from his thoughts, and suddenly Cless feels nervous, like if he looks away The Demon King would eat him up or something. Which sounds weird but he’s sure demons could manage that sort of thing. Then, the two hear a knock and finally Dhaos pulls away slowly from the other blond before opening the door to reveal Chester. “I was wondering when you’d get up, but luckily it seems I didn’t have to worry about that since Dhaos is on the job, among other things.”

 

The tall blond simply nodded and Chester rolled his eyes as the blond missed the innuendo. It must be a thing with blondes and red headbands. He sighs to himself and puts his hands on his hips. “Just get dressed so we’re not late, okay? Dhaos just do whatever you do while we’re in school.”

 

“...”

 

...

 

Cless yawned while in class before he saw the new girl named Mint waving at him with a smile. Apparently, a few minutes later, he discovered he was going to be working with her, Chester, and some pink-haired girl named Arche on a group project. The latter of the four tended to be kind of a delinquent when it came to attending school but it seemed Mint and Arche both had a close history of some sort. Said strawberry blond-haired girl stated that if the boys landed a finger on Mint when she wasn’t paying attention she’ll introduce them to the ‘nutcracker’.

 

The blond wondered why some of these people in this school were so weird and definitely thought it was way too early for something that appeared around christmas. He didn’t know why Chester paled though -- maybe he was allergic to nuts.

 

Either way, he noticed that the two females held hands all the way there and didn’t think too much of it when they arrived at Chester’s house. Chester whispered something about them being ‘close’ and he replied, “Yeah, they must be really close friends.”  
  


His blue-haired friend mentioned something about being clueless and got ribbed in response. He was _not_ clueless he was just stating that’s how it looked to him! He sighed before getting set on drawing out what kind of historical outline of the pseudo-archaeological history project they collectively had. Everyone in the class had been given the structure of an old civilization to build and he was delegated to doing the drawing due to Chester mentioning the last time Cless had tried to help with something delicate ended up in pieces.

 

Which was totally rude, this time they were using fine wood instead of glass so it _should_ be different than last time! He huffed to himself at the thought and simply continued on as he was, doodling stuff before checking dimensions over with Mint. Cless felt a hand move his own over to the right with a shove, and the words spoken, coming from close by his right side, “If you’re going to be drawing a building from somewhere a long time ago, you must remember about what the teacher spoke to you regarding their appearance. As well as remember that anything less than straight lines is not going to be sufficient enough.”  
  


Cless sighed and looked at Dhaos. “Hey, I’m not a super artist or something. My expertise lies elsewhere... you know, in battle and I can actually build things okayish! And cook pretty good.”

 

Arche asked, grinning as she looked up from the pieces of fine wood and paint, “Oh, oh! Cless, is that your boyfriend?”

 

Cless blinked and his face turned red before he started to shake.

 

“ _ **ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!”**_

 

...

 

Arche rubbed her ear a bit after that yelling session, wondering why if he was going to deny something it had to be like _that_ and she sighed, taking a look over at Mint, asking, “Hey, do you think Chester would let two poor, innocent girls sleep over his house for the night? He’s already got two cute guys staying over so why not add in two more!”

 

Mint smiled a little, looking at Chester as she asked, “We wondering if you could allow us to stay as it has already become night and it seems you have a few guest rooms we could use. If it isn’t too imposing, that is.”  
  


The pink-haired girl sighed and whispered to Mint, “You’re not supposed to leave a way out! You’re--”

 

Cless piped up asking, and grinning sheepishly, “It should be fine. Right, Chester?”

 

“Ah, but--”  
  


“-- _Right_ , Chester?”

 

Chester sighed loudly and said, “ _Fine_ , there is one guestroom on the left. Just don’t bother my sister, she’s asleep at this hour and I’ll make any of you regret it if I found out you woke her up.”

 

Dhaos seemed to be looking on and watching closely as far as anyone was concerned... however he was rather absorbed in his own thoughts. Or at least that’s what _he_ thought, among other things such as how foolish humans were, and even further still, the feeling of betrayal he will never forget that’s been done at their hands.

 

As for Cless, he listened in to the girls speak, when Mint mentions something about ‘finding flowers’ and he gets an idea. He comes closer to them and asks, “...Looking for flowers tomorrow? I can help...!”

 

Arche giggled into her hand, “Well, if you’re trying to get into Mint’s good graces, then I’m going to have to tell you ‘too bad’!”

 

The blond-haired girl blushed and said, “Arche, please!”

 

Cless also blushed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “THAT’S NOT IT ALRIGHT?!”

 

This caused Chester and Dhaos to look at him immediately and he felt his face turn really red once more. He hears Dhaos ask faintly, “Are you sick, human? That’s--”

 

“NO I’M FINE IT’S NOTHING JUST FORGET ABOUT IT!”

 

Chester snorted but then realized this could be a problem as he said, “Hey, hey calm down you’ll wake Ami!”

 

Arche snorted and looked at Cless, asking, “Human, huh? Are you guys roleplaying or something...?”

 

Cless laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. “Y-yeah, hahaha, that’s what we’re doing...”

 

“...”

 

Arche said, waggling her eyebrows, “So you’re into ‘that’ sort of thing...”

 

“W-what do you mean by that?!”

 

“... Yes, do enlighten us.”

 

Arche grinned mischievously and started, “Well...I’ll save it for later. Hehehe!”

 

...

 

After another round of practice, Cless found himself on the floor, panting. His eyes go over to the side to spot Chester coming over to him before he took his hand to help him rise to his feet and predictably, the battle summary by Dhaos as he lowers himself to their view. The illusion still going on as to not wake anyone up. At some part that Cless didn’t accidentally block out he hears, “...and I expect to see you use that potential of yours in battle, swordsman. Your archer performs much better than you do in battle. Do you know why that is?”

 

Cless huffs and crosses his arms, feeling too indignant and not wanting to give an answer he feels he might be wrong on. Therefore, Dhaos continues, “It’s because that while he can’t exactly ‘rush’ into battle, he has it right in his mind to make sure to have the enemy have as least contact with his body as possible. You charge headfirst into battle and do not even utilize the concept as defending yourself. Haven’t you been taught that in your swordplay classes, human? Or... did you rely on your speed and strong onslaught of attacks to overwhelm your opponent first before they get to you? In either case--”

 

The highschooler’s face was as red as a tomato as he exclaimed, “Alright, alright! I get it, sheesh. I’ll remember to guard next time... I just get too excited sometimes.”

 

“...What’s wrong? Why are you--”

 

“JUST END IT ALREADY!”

 

...

 

Cless woke up early with a smile on his plan. It should go pretty well, but first, he needed to take care of something that _would_ interfere with his plan. Which of course was to get someone a certain thing that was unexpected...! Well, of course giving guys flowers may be kind of weird but he figures that it’s not too bad or _too_ weird is it? Plus, he’s giving it out of the goodness of his heart. Surely, Dhaos might see something good in that, or maybe...

 

_**Cless’ Imagination** _ **:**

 

_Dhaos takes the flower given to him and is surprised that he is once again seemingly silent before his eyes turn all starry-eyed before he grabs Cless’ hands, pulling the other male close to him and gladly proclaims, “... I see the error of my ways. Clearly my judgment of all humans have been for naught and it is only due to your actions I realize this. Cless Alvein, you are clearly the paragon of humanity, not to mention better than any swordsman that ever lived. Everything I have said about you negatively has been either in jest or a lie. I was simply...”_

 

Yes, yes, something like that. Something _definitely_ like that, Cless thinks, for a moment going incredibly overboard in his mind.

 

“ _...in love with you. Let’s get married.”_

 

_Cless heard himself in his imagination say, “Yes, let’s do it!!”_

 

“WOAH WOAH WAIT A SECOND! YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO--”

 

Dhaos appeared in his room and raised an eyebrow. “... Human, are you talking to yourself?”

 

Cless turned red in the face. “NO I’M NOT! I-I was just... rehearsing some lines... ahaha...hahaha....”

 

The smaller blond-haired male quickly turned away to cover his burning face. _Just great, just great, I don’t know what to do with myself and he appears... what am I going to do?! Wait a minute I’m not some teenager in love, this is silly just walk it off, walk it off..._

 

Cless cleared his throat, feeling his face finally feel less like burning and when he turned around to look at Dhaos again, his face suddenly flared full-on red once more. He decided that the easiest thing to do at this point was run straight past him so he could gather himself in private, hopefully. “Human, the doo--”

 

When the blond runs into the door, he’s decided that today has gotten off to a _really bad start_ , and he thinks that he can’t even look at anyone like this. He must look like an idiot, and his parents must be embarrassed by him so much right now. Right now he feels that looking like one is unacceptable; it’s almost like he’s fooling around or something. And that doesn’t bring him closer to finding his parents’ killers.

 

Damnit, why does he feel like he’s going to cry?

 

“Hey, look, uh -- I need to be alone for awhile. There’s something I have to do, so...!”

 

Cless gives the other blond a forced grin before he’s opened the door and continues out of the room, leaving behind the confused occupant, who moves to follow.

 

Chester feels someone brush by him and he turns his head slightly, seeing Cless in time as well as his expression. He turns to face Dhaos, and asks him, frowning, “Hey, what gives? What did you say to make him so upset?”

 

Dhaos shook his head as he replied, “...I did nothing to upset him. Perhaps he’s mulling over his dead family and needs time to collect himself.”

 

Chester stared up at him and said, “Well I’m not going to believe you just yet.”

 

“Very well. If you have time to waste with such antics, you may as well tell me more about your friend.”

 

The blue-haired male didn’t seem to expect it, but... he gave him a look. “Don’t think you’re off the hook. I’ll be watching you and if you do something with Cless, you better take responsibility. Understand?”

 

“.............What?”

 

...

 

The short-haired blond finally finds himself outside of the house and immediately in the backyard, which has been sort of kept-up. He begins to walk towards the small conglomerate of trees, when he hears a certain girl call to him, “Hey, Cless! Don’t look so gloomy. How about you come over here with us and we’ll help you find the perfect flower for your boyfriend!”

 

Cless blinks and looks over before sighing, his face still turning red against his will as he says, “He’s not my boyfriend, for the last time... just cut it out already!”

 

The two girls moved over to him, before Arche says, “Sure, sure, are you going to look with us or not?”

 

The blond crossed his arms and didn’t say anything, or tried not to anyway. Mint then decided to speak up in order to defuse the tension, “We were pretty excited at the prospect of you joining us, so if you could find it within your heart to excuse Arche’s rudeness, I’m sure it won’t be too much trouble.”

 

Arche blushed a bit and started, “H-hey now...!”

 

This actually got Cless to laugh a bit and then say, “Alright, alright...”

 

The three of them looked throughout the whole greenery for any flowers, but it seemed that the most of what they could find were just lillies. It came to no surprise to the short-haired blond that there wasn’t anything in variety or particular that stood out from the rest, because there wasn’t a garden or a place where flowers grew easily. He didn’t notice it too much, but at one point he became separated from Arche and Mint -- then in the next moment as he was moving through the foliage Cless found himself falling because the ground underneath him collapsed. The blond male then groaned when he felt himself hit the dirt. It looked like he fell more than ten feet.

 

Damnit, just his luck...

 

Cless began to attempt to climb up the dirt walls, and finally after slipping as well as sliding down more than five times he managed to get himself to the top of the hole. He looked around a bit and heard the sound of the other two calling out his name. There were a few trees here or there... or rather more like a lot blocking his view of them and he thought that it shouldn’t be too bad if he looked around a little more. It seems, however, his persistence paid off and he found something like a mostly dark purple flower with a few bits of white upon it, and he quickly took it within his hands with a smile.

 

It reminded him of Dhaos somehow... seeming a bit lonely and distant. He turns around to see someone standing over him with green-colored hair mostly with a strand of red. “What do we have here? Looks like someone left their human toy unintended.”

 

Cless’ right hand moves to unsheathe his blade he’s brought with him, only to find a fist has met his stomach hard enough that he spits up saliva and falls to his knees. “Oh and don’t think anyone will come for you. This barrier can conceal your presence easily from even the strongest of foes or allies.”

 

He supposes that this mysterious man expects him to stay there, but he instantly uses the momentum to kick out at his legs. Luckily enough it connects, sending the green-haired evildoer to the ground in the midst of his laughter.

 

This time Cless manages to unsheathe his blade, and concentrates on the enemy in front of him, performing a 90 degree angle slash combo from the right. He feels his heartbeat surge in slight revulsion at seeing the blood fly and catch onto the metal but steels himself. He hears the pained noise from the man, before being hit by a magical onslaught of wind that not only cuts through him, but also propels him off of his feet to land straight into a tree. “W-why are you doing this?!”

 

The enemy smirked as he landed a quick, powerful kick to Cless’ stomach, knocking the wind out of him again, and then keeps on repeating the move, much to the anguished blond’s despair. It was too fast for him to counter with his back against the tree.

 

Cless made a few cries of pain at each hit, and he knew he wasn’t going to last very long. His opponent seemed to realize this too when the blond was curled up in pain, and tears were welling up in his eyes. “I’m doing it because you’re a roadblock to Lord Dhaos’ plan. Do you hear me, lover boy? He’s becoming all misty eyed because of a pint-sized human like you!”

 

The blond’s eyes were marked with confusion before they moved to look at the flower in his hand that wasn’t loosely clutching the handle of his blade. The monster before him laughed before moving to stomp his foot on the hand and subsequently on the flower, eliciting another pained noise from the incapacitated blonde. “Maybe I should--”

 

“ _Maybe you should_ _ **what**_ _?_ ”

 

The demon in question froze, looking pale as snow, and at this point the blond beneath him knew who it was. Cless managed to get out a faint, “...D-Dhaos...here...”

 

The Demon King turned his head and looked in his hand to see the crushed flower. Then, he grabbed Demitel by the neck, and slammed him to the ground with such speed that Cless couldn’t keep up in his head.

 

He heard Dhaos’ voice...raised in anger...

 

He tries to stay awake, as someone runs over to his side, but he fades out soon enough.

 

...

 

Dhaos was quiet the whole entire time they brought the blond inside and the long haired blond woman demonstrated a ‘unique power’ that she asked everyone else besides Arche to not inform anyone of. It seems her friend could heal people, which could be useful once a certain band of _fools_ attacked. Speaking of fools and attacking, he believes he taught a demon in his service a proper lesson after beating him to near death. No one goes around attacking that human of his...

 

...

 

His... human? He feels his cheeks warm strangely at the thought, when he is most assuredly sure that they shouldn’t. Neither was there supposed to be this weird clenching in his chest-- as if he...he...

 

The thoughts came to when he had been before the human, and his finger had run alongside the smaller blond’s lower lip. His mind began to wander, and he felt foreign, having such thoughts that even affected his body. What had he been thinking, doing such a thing, and saying those words after that?

 

Dhaos halted the thought, and looked over at the sleeping human. It had been six hours since the incident and he had set the glass case with the _columbine_ flower on the window sill so Cless would see it when he woke up. In contrast to the broken pieces of petals and stem it had been when Demitel had stomped all over it, he had decided to rewind time (something he can only do with things so minute) and stop it for the plant, as well as give it magic properties that’d make it glow. It had been so long that someone had bothered to give him a present, human or not, that he wanted to keep it around for quite a long while. He felt a brief ghost of a smile upon his lips.

 

Perhaps it was all just a strange way of this so-called human ‘friendship’. He remembers befriending one quite a long time ago. She had flowing red hair and was rather quite formal with him... yes, that’s right. Her name was Karion, wasn’t it?

 

He remembered her quite well.

 

_The blond-haired man was king of a realm in which both humans and demons lived in peace. Indeed, it sounded like a utopia and that was because Dhaos made sure that they kept their country out of the affairs of others when they involved themselves in wars. However, such a thing didn’t last long, as someone amongst his land was envious of his power. Someone greedy and dark of heart..._

 

_She always made a habit of practicing archery on her own time, being the best marksman of the country, which wasn’t an easy feat. When she wasn’t practicing archery, she was conducting her duties as a member of the royal court._

 

_He remembers... spending time with her. Her smile. Her kind words....the ring she gave him. That she had something important to tell him._

 

_The next day the kingdom went up in flames, and she was burned as a ‘witch’. People from beyond the country attacked and killed indiscriminately. He was ‘sealed away’ and the story had been written as he formed an army in a quest for world domination...justifying the mass murder of his people no one bothered to question. The true history of his land..._

 

Having already done enough on his end, in typical fashion he spent the rest of the time just floating there a few inches off the ground and thinking about the past ... as well as to make sure that humans could feel the fiery brimstone of his vengeance. He will once again recreate a land for his people and this time no one can possibly protest against it. Or, well, that’s what he certainly had intended in the first place when having been summoned here.

 

He’d just have to wait a few more weeks until he’d have time to enact a plan. While setting up the challenge seemed to just prolong him preparing to put this world under his finger, it also ensured that it’d leave time for his forces to recover their own former glory. This human was fighting a futile deal, regardless of what kind of amicable feelings he may instill within The Demon King himself.

 

Dhaos thought on the issue some more, undoubtedly spending more time until it turned into early morning.

 

He hears the door open, revealing a blue-haired young girl. He turns his head to face her as she comes slowly and shyly into the room. She smiled at him as she came near and said, “You’re the big nice guy named Mister Dhaos, right?”

 

“...”

 

The blue-haired girl continued on with a shy smile, “Hey...can you help me with something? You’re Cless and big brother’s friend, so... I was kind of hoping if you could come with me to buy something. Since my brother said I can’t go alone and it’s kinda cold outside...”

 

“...”

 

Dhaos examines her expression some more and considers declining, except her countenance changes into more of a pleading one. In the end he supposes she wins out, because he’s walking out of the room with her before heading out of the house. He made sure to ‘change’ his clothes into typical standard human wear in order to blend in and not get any unbecoming stares. The cloak turned into an orange scarf, his black suit into a long black jacket, black pants, and he wore black gloves still, with blackish-yellow boots.

 

The blue-haired girl, whom he came to learn was named Ami. The girl was dressed in a blue jacket with blue jeans and red gloves. She hurried over to a store that was actually opened pretty early in the morning, and about five or so blocks away. He simply watched her as she perused the place, grabbing a few things before settling them on the counter and paying for them with her own money.

 

The blond’s eyes land on a small teddy bear and for some reason when she’s not looking, he picks it up as well as buys it. Well with money he formed from demonic magic anyway... for lesser things like this it was very simple. He turned his head to look over at her as she’s peering at some kind of fake small house for sale. He walks over to her and said, “...We’re leaving.”

 

Ami looks up at him and Dhaos hands her the teddy bear. He watches her face light up and for some reason, he finds it comforting.

 

...

 

As Ami and Dhaos headed back, he heard her ask, “...So I heard you and Cless are going to get married from big brother. I wanted to say, congrats!”

 

The Demon King nearly tripped over his own feet in surprise. For a moment, the blond felt a headache coming on. Some humans truly were more trouble than they were worth. “...It appears I may have to speak to your ‘brother’ about a certain matter.”

 

The two of them were about to cross a busy intersection, and so, without preamble, the smaller girl grabbed his hand to hold on tight. Normally, such a thing would be off limits, but he simply found it acceptable in this case. She was so small, or at least compared to him, and the house was not too far away. As soon as they crossed the street, however, in his true luckless fashion he found that they were being stalked.

 

Numerous energy signatures that just so happened to be going towards him? That wasn’t just a coincidence. He stopped right there and was about to teleport just Ami into the house, but he found that the both of them were caught in some kind of spell that teleported them first. It was another dimension of some kind, and three men along with two women presented themselves before him. Needless to say, he was unimpressed and asked, “...Who are you?”

 

Ami held on tight to his hand as one of them pointed an accusing finger at him, “We’re heroes here to vanquish the resurgence of The Demon King Dhaos!”

 

Dhaos found himself annoyed. He tried to make his reappearance have less fanfare than most...although he supposed considering his powers when he returned someone undoubtedly sensed it. Some part of him was even more furious that they would go to the trouble to have someone _prepared_ for his return. Without a second thought to hear what kind of foolishness they might say, he immediately brought a spell upon them that caused meteors to form and strike down from above. This scattered their group as he launched into another spell that stopped them for a short amount of time...literally. Then, after that, he began to gather a good amount of energy within him, as he muttered, “You’re much too late and too young to be dealing with the likes of myself. Prepare to die!”

 

Ami shouted, “No, don’t kill them! We can talk it out, can’t we?”

 

Dhaos scoffed,.”Child, I will show you the folly of your mercy.”

 

He paused. He will try it one more time, and see how it works. Then he switched to making it into a tidal wave, after tidal wave, before conjuring up gale force winds, whacking his opponents back and forth before leaving them easily defeated. One of them, appearing to be the youngest, and a girl with blond hair, started to slowly rise. He approached her and asked, “Do you fold, human?”

 

She looked at him, eyes steeled with determination, as she asked, “Y-Yes, but... is it true you’re going to destroy all of the humans?”

 

The Demon King raised an eyebrow. “There are far too many humans to destroy. It will be nothing but folly to try to destroy all of them. They need to be brought under the rule of someone who will keep them from resorting to foolish schemes... and that one is myself...Then there is the simple fact that anyone who opposes myself will be met with a harsh punishment under my rule. Truly, this is how this world should be. Once under my control, I shall have taken back what is rightfully mine.

 

You can continue spreading your lies if you wish... but the truth will reveal itself in turn sooner or later.”

 

She bit her lip before replied, “Wait... it doesn’t have to be like that. If both demons and humans can live together in peace, then -- then we don’t have to fight anymore! I just think that maybe there was a misunderstanding!”

 

Dhaos chuckled and asked, “Misunderstanding? Hardly... it was you humans who started this in the first place. However, I do recognize it is not the fault of all humanity that such a ‘misunderstanding’ occurred. Instead of eventual systematic wiping out of mankind, I have proposed ruling over all of demon and man in its stead.”

 

The blond-haired girl kept pressing, saying, “Well Mister Dhaos, I want to tell you that not even you can stop humans from fighting to save their autonomy. But, I feel like if we both teamed up we could do a lot together! I’m Winona Pickford, and, well...”

 

Again with these humans and insisting on _finding another way_. He would like to enlighten them to the reality of this world and their fellow species, but it seemed that once again only ‘showing’ should awaken their minds. Dhaos thought of a certain human who would likely be incredibly excited...

 

_**Dhaos’ imagination:** _

 

_After the blond-haired human had gotten out of bed, due to the behest of the blue-haired human friend, the swordsman smiled simply at the new entourage The Demon King brought with him. When the girl spoke to him, she smiled so bright, she seemed to shine, and then the high school senior replied back just as animately... although he wasn’t sure what they would say exactly he knew that they would be relieved. Then, the human turned towards him and shouted, “I knew you’d make friends with my people eventually! It was only a matter of time. I JUST KNEW IT! Praise me for how right I am so I can mysteriously turn adorably red and be humbled by your opinion!”_

 

...Although now that he thought of it, that probably wasn’t exactly quite the right reaction, and just barely missed Winona’s confused expression. The girl in question wondered why he had been smiling for a moment.

 

Dhaos replies, “Heh. Very well...you can _try_ and we shall see what happens. I will be making my decision depending on how you and this human’s group does in their attempts to convince myself. However futile they may be...”

 

Winona began to say something, and then in the next moment, he found that there was a flash of light. He heard someone screaming -- Ami’s voice. He knew in the next moment that she wasn’t hurt, but he heard, “We don’t have use for someone who will side with the Demon King... or at least I don’t. Unfortunately, you’re too strong for us to face--I realize this now. So I will leave you with a present, only to say to my unconscious comrades you performed the grisly deed of killing an innocent girl. How tragic!”

 

As the laughter faded, he saw that they were back in the world of the modern living. It had grown to become afternoon, and thus there wasn’t anyone around for once...perhaps in a sense that would be lucky, since Dhaos was currently standing there with blood splashed all over his front. Not to mention on his face as well. He looked down to see the remains, of the smouldering corpse that had once belonged to that blond-haired girl.

 

“.......”

 

He teleported Ami immediately to her home and began to clean up the mess, as well as finding a particular device that was beside Winona’s body. It was covered in blood as well, but he could easily figure out that it was some blasted human technology.

 

For the first time in awhile Dhaos found himself once again disgusted by the actions of humanity. Truly, they are such despicable creatures...

 

His head started to hurt, and his hatred grew. It was their fault his kingdom had been destroyed, and so many people precious to him killed. There were some good humans, but a voice in his mind begin to speak that he had to kill off only a good chunk of them before--

 

\--what was he thinking?

 

For a moment, his thoughts leave him completely. Then, darkness.

 

...

 

Dhaos returned to Chester’s residence, after cleaning himself up, and possibly as well as taking a moment for himself. One does not deal with people being made to explode right in front of him daily, especially by some kind of device that he figures was thrown or placed inside of her without her knowing. He could see the grave expressions of the four waiting for him, and yet he asks himself what do they have to gain from knowing such beings existed but to still want to allow them to rule the world? Quite even moreso, when their leaders allow inexplicable horrors be committed among their own people...

 

He hears Chester speak up first, expression dark, “I heard about what happened. Dhaos, do you know where these people live?”

 

Arche then said, “Yeah! It’s been awhile since I gave anyone a good thrashing...”

 

The blond-haired swordsman spoke up, “We can’t allow these kind of people to do what they want! Where are they now?!”

 

Dhaos stared at them. “As you are now, are you truly prepared?”

 

Mint said, “With all due respect, I think we certainly are, Dhaos... I mean, if they’re going to go around doing this then they must be stopped.”

 

In the blink of an eye, The Demon King brought them to another place within the city. Where he simply knew from tracking one of the people from the group’s energy signatures due to their usage of that magic. He finds instead of buildings that all that remained was simply ash, leaving the rest of the group surprised, but Dhaos just smirks to himself. “... It appears the matter is now none of our concern.”

 

Cless’ eyebrows just furrowed as he looked around and brought a hand to cover his nose. The smell of burnt things, including corpses... it was truly horrible. He didn’t notice the look of suspicion upon his best friend, but it was just as well. There really wasn’t anything any of them could do about it.

 

...

 

Cless saw everyone convene on the top floor right before the rooms, and even he was there, but noticed that once again Dhaos was about to leave without saying too much. He wanted to show him something, and so called out his name. When he received no reaction, he reached out to the blonde's arm. The tall blond reacted in such a surprise, that when he immediately pulled his arm out of Cless’ grasp, his hand accidentally wound up slapping the high school senior hard in the face.

 

“........”

 

This caused everyone to look over, surprised, and Cless murmured a small apology as he turned red in the face as he felt humiliated, winding up running off before Dhaos could even so much as utter a word. As expected, Chester turned on him, pissed, as he shouted, “Hey, what’s your problem?! He didn’t do anything to you!”

 

Arche had a reproachful look as she exclaimed, “Yeah, that’s a little cold, even for you!”

 

“... I didn’t--”

 

The archer interrupted him, “--Go apologize to him, don’t just stand around!”

 

...

 

Cless swung his blade around outside, the incident truly making him want to practice some more... and maybe he shouldn’t have reacted like that. But he just felt it being in front of everyone was too much-- certainly he knew the guy didn’t like humans but. The teenager sighed to himself. Maybe in his excitement he pushed boundaries without thinking. He was such an idiot. At the thought he grit his teeth and just swung harder, before unleashing a shockwave from the blade that cut the tree in half.

 

_Oh._

 

He hears a certain voice ask, “Human, what is it you call yourself doing?”

 

The blond-haired senior turns around to face the taller blond, who is frowning slightly at seeing him out in the night, using a sword, and apparently learned a new ability as well. “...Well, I learned something new and I had been planning on showing you--”

 

“--Indeed you have and whomever might have been watching. You will bring more untoward attention towards yourself in such a manner.”

 

Cless gritted his teeth, as he felt an indignant anger course through him. Nothing was ever good enough, was it? He’ll always just be seen as some stupid idiot...! He quickly sheathes the blade and is about to move when he notices that Dhaos is standing in his would-be walkpath. It surprised him enough to show on his face before Cless crossed his arms and huffed, refusing to look at Dhaos.

 

God, he was acting like an idiot all over again, but he couldn’t help it, with all this stuff happening... no he couldn’t use that as an excuse--

 

He hears Dhaos say, “... About earlier. The action was not my... intention, regardless of how unwelcome your unwarranted physical contact was.”

 

Cless blinks and his eyes look up to him as he softly murmurs, “Huh...?”

 

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This was not what he was expecting at all. His brown eyes were still widened, looking up into red ones. Then he just sheepishly grinned and rubbed the back of his head, feeling his face turn red. Cless’ eyes looked down. “W-well...I think-- I think we both reacted silly so...”

 

“Are you feeling unwell, human?”

 

It took that comment and from Cless seeing Dhaos’ curious expression for the shorter of the two to reply, “Ah! No, not really. Dhaos, you know, you seem a lot more calm and reasonable than when we first met.”

 

Dhaos scoffed. “If you weren’t too busy being foolish, you would have realized that I was like that from the start.”

 

_Damnit, I spoke too soon..._

 

“Nevermind!”

 

“Heh.”

 

Cless sent Dhaos a look at that little laugh of his and The Demon King tried to put on a look that indicated he was clueless as to why he was being given such an expression, but for some reason the high schooler sincerely knew better. Then, something else came to his head and he said, “Hey, uh... I noticed you sort of repaired the flower.”

 

Dhaos’ expression seemed to soften. “...It was enchanting, and beautiful. Surprisingly considerate of you, and therefore I decided to keep it.”

 

Cless’ face turned beet red this time, and he hated how easily embarrassed he became around the man. It was just... it was just a stupid flower, just because Dhaos kept it doesn’t mean anything at all! And yet, and yet...

 

He shook his head. It was just his imagination, that’s all it was!

 

The smaller blond got an idea and asked, “Hey, can you... I mean do you want to hang out with me tonight? I was thinking of going somewhere nice. A restaurant, maybe?”

 

Dhaos seems to just look at him, and then his eyes widen some, along with his cheeks dusting a faint pink. Was this... being asked out on what they call a ‘date’? He was confused, to say the least. However, he felt like he didn’t want to refuse, and said, “Yes.”

 

Cless grinned, and said, “Well--”

 

“--Alright you two lovebirds, hang on a moment. I need to talk to tall, dark, and handsome for a second about something.”

 

Cless began to sputter as Chester walked onto the scene, his face glowing red, “W-What?! We’re not lov--”

 

Dhaos interrupted succinctly with, “Very well. Make it quick, human. We are busy.”

 

The high school blond felt his embarrassment increase tenfold as he covered his face with his hand and then sighed to himself. Why was his life even like this he’ll never know...

 

Chester, in the meanwhile, stepped closer to the Demon King and gave him a frown. “Now... what the hell was this business with those people calling you The Demon King first of all? And second of all, what did you do to those people? I know you did something judging from that look on your face back there when we went to those smouldering buildings...”

 

Dhaos arched an eyebrow, and chuckled to himself. “Oh? Such a thing... do you truly believe I did such a thing to them? In this case, it has nothing to do with me, and either way it’s a thorn in our side that has been taken care of. I could care less.”

 

The blue haired archer grit his teeth before he reached out to grab the front of the orange cloak the demon wore as he said, “Fine, whatever! But what’s this about you being a Demon King? What’s your real goal, and don’t lie to me! You avoided answering the first question I asked you.”

 

Cless cleared his throat, and said, “Chester, why don’t we just... calm down a little. I think this is getting a little out of hand-- besides it’s not just about him being the Demon King or whatever. Like we told you, some group is after us, and I have a feeling, considering what they did to my parents we might be just a little out of our league until enough training...”

 

Chester let go of Dhaos’ cloak, not liking the sound of this. He just honestly really wanted to know what’s going on. “Just don’t keep anymore secrets from us!”

 

Dhaos seemed to be quite unfettered, blinking and then turning over to look at Cless as he said, “Let’s make our leave then. We shall return from our special date soon.”

 

Just then, Cless’ face turned entirely red as a giant shock came over him. Even at hearing such a thing, Chester snorted, and decided to bid them farewell. Unfortunately, the high school blond didn’t get a chance to gather himself in time before Dhaos whisked them away...

 

The archer shook his head. Then he heard a certain pink-haired girl ask, as she came out from the house, “Are you sure it’s alright to just let him get away like that?”

 

Chester crossed his arms. “I have no clue what you’re talking about. Then again, far be it from you to say something so stupid...”

 

Arche puffed her cheeks out as she gave the bluenette a glare. “You know, you’re the worst kind of childhood friend. I’m never giving you special magic buffs in battle from now on, until you apologize!”

 

“What the hell, I didn’t even say anything that bad!”

 

...

 

When Cless opened his eyes, he didn’t expect to be in a place that was secluded from the city he normally resided in, let alone there be a fantastical mansion of some type beyond the horizon, and it was suddenly all he could do to keep himself from speaking in a way that embarrassed himself. He collected himself relatively shortly afterwards, however, and turned his attention upon his _partner_ or the one that perhaps Dhaos would surely insist he was in that sort of quiet, regal, and yet stubborn way of his. At the thought, his mind wandered a little... maybe it isn’t so bad if it’s him and well he is kind of strong...

 

_Snap out of it Cless! What would your father think?!_

 

The blond shook his head, before he felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned around to face Dhaos. The male had made a show of dressing up somehow without him noticing... his hair was as it was in front, but in the back he had made sure to pin it up as an elegant pony tail with some hair band or something. His head band was still present, but he wore some type of black and yellow complicated suit that looked akin to a princely jacket with orange buttons. In the back it even had two coat tails. His pants were a stark yellow and he wore some kind of snazzy shoes.

 

Cless blinked, and felt himself grin sheepishly. “Hey, uh, you look great...”

 

_Wait wait I better tell him this isn’t--_

 

“Good, because you are dressed just as appropriately as well. When I saw you approach me in such formal wear, I was convinced...that you were truly putting your all into this.”

 

The smaller blond blinked and was confused before he looked down and saw that he was wearing what appears to be a black tuxedo instead of the normal t shirt and pants he wore. Wait, when did he put this on ... and if Dhaos didn’t... then what--

 

Cless for once didn’t have and it wasn’t because he was embarrassed, but because he was just so surprised he couldn’t say anything. He allowed Dhaos to lead him towards the manor, as his thoughts remained in the clouds, and The Demon King brought him deeper in where there were many others in just as many rich clothing. He hears Dhaos say simply, “Welcome... to my abode. It is just one part of my castle, of course, and many others of my race usually occupy this place with or without my absence.”

 

The senior blushed a little before he cleared his throat and said, “Dhaos, I really need to tell you something. Look, I just... this was all a misunderstanding of sorts. I didn’t mean to fool you or -- have any of this happen in the way you thought it was... I mean under _that_ term. I didn’t ask you out on a romantic date or anything like that, okay? Hell, I don’t even know why or how I changed into a pair of clothing I don’t even own.”

 

The Demon King just blinked and looked just as unaffected as ever. Cless wondered if he ever allowed his expression to show whenever he was hurt by something, or angry, other than tone because he certainly couldn’t tell until he spoke. “Misunderstandings do occur from time to time. I shall let it pass, and we will discuss the issue with your clothing later. Feel lucky, human, since I am lenient when it comes to you.”

 

Cless blinked as he asked, “Huh...?”

 

Dhaos leaned forward, moving his hand to rest against the small of the blonde's back, as his other hand moved to clasp Cless within his right hand. His red eyes bore intensely into his own with a passion not seen moments earlier. “... Come and... dance with me.”

 

He hears gasps from all around and feels the urge to shrink somewhere else when he notices heated glares thrown his way. Cless felt that feeling begin to dissipate soon enough, however, and that it simply didn’t even matter anymore, since this was a moment he could hardly have imagined would happen. He doesn’t feel like protesting much, but he manages to say at least something sensible, “... Well... I don’t really know how to dance.”

 

Dhaos leaned forward some more to say, “Fighting is a type of dance. You may...follow me as if I were your enemy and you were trying to keep up.”

 

“But you’re not--”

 

The blond demon interceded with, “--But I am. You are fighting against me in a way, even now, in an attempt to prove to me that my judgment is wrong.”

 

Cless blinked. That was a good point, wasn’t it? One he couldn’t argue, and well, he figured one little dance couldn’t hurt. With that in mind he found himself practically pulled off of his feet for the beginning, and his hands had automatically moved to the taller man’s shoulders. Then when his feet touched the ground he tried desperately to follow the elder man’s regal movement, with a semblance of more success than he could’ve ever imagined.

 

Apparently, the onlookers were just as surprised, because their voices quieted at that moment, and he could feel his own lips become traitorous in order to curl upwards into a smug smile of sorts. Why the hell was he feeling smug in the first place he couldn’t identify, because he wasn’t sure if this was exactly a good reason to. After all, guys don’t normally dance with guys, right? Or maybe... he just needed to stop being in so much denial-- who was he really kidding at this point?

 

This man was really beautiful, and sure he could be considered as much as so as a normal woman was but ... that wasn’t all that was. Because if it were, he wouldn’t be with him right now. Something about him was definitely cold and made him distant, but he feels like he was warming up a little because of himself. Cless felt like he was doing something to mellow out this guy a little, and his friends were helping too. Not only that, but, he doesn’t really mind being around him, and he feels like, just maybe... Dhaos really does care about him.

 

Why else would he bother with him?

 

Maybe Dhaos also felt he had a duty to finish the rest of this outing as planned, whether it was discovered that Cless’ initial intentions were different than what he expected, or that’s at least what Cless speculated. Up until he stepped on Dhaos’ right foot. “Crap, sorry!”

 

Dhaos didn’t even so much as stop after Cless lifted up his foot and tried to follow afterward. In fact, The Demon King even made an almost unheard sound of amusement and said, “It was something I expected from a human like you.”

 

A vein popped on Cless’ forehead and he purposely stepped on Dhaos’ foot once more. “EXPECT THIS!”

 

“........Why must you do these things?”

 

...

 

Dhaos wound up having to dump the sleeping human into a bed, one of which certainly wasn’t the human’s own, and much too fancy for Cless to ever own. Sincerely, he felt that this was certainly better, and he considered the thought as well as the swordsman’s manifesting abilities. Looks like he would be discussing it tomorrow, but he’d rather do it under his terms, and away from any other humans.

 

He paused, and took this moment to get a longer look at the sleeping human. In the next moment a bright flash of light overcame Cless and it appeared that he was wearing pink, silk pajamas. He furrowed his eyebrows and leaned over the blond, wondering at that. Since when did he learn to use magic to change his clothing?

 

Interesting... this might happen to do with his abilities. He found that the human began to drool in his sleep and shook his head. This male was such an uncouthly mess, it was a wonder he survived this long.

 

Dhaos moved a hand to brush a bit of the male’s bangs from the middle of his face and leaned in even more.

 

The door opened to reveal a certain demon from earlier. It was Demitel. “Lord Dhaos, I... wait. Are you with this human again?”

 

“.......”

 

Dhaos was still frozen in place, because he simply felt his face burning with embarrassment and this simply would not do. His mind was working to find a way to not blast his servant through the hall for the interruption or the fact that him barging in made him realize what his subconscious mind would have him do.

 

“D-do you... love that human?”

 

A vein popped on the blond’s forehead. “...Silence with that foolishness. We all know demons don’t fall in love. I am just humoring him.”

 

Demitel cleared his throat and said, “Well, me and Rhea--”

 

“Your jokes were not funny back then, and neither are they now. What have you come to bother me with? Make it quick, otherwise I will make quick work of you.”

 

_Someone’s still a tightass_ , is Demitel’s first thought after hearing that. The demon quickly sobered up, however, and said, “Well... we finally found the ring you were looking for. However, it with one of those disgusting human factions.”

 

Dhaos said, rising to his feet, “Very well. We shall discuss this matter... now. Come.”

 

As Demitel explained to him what else he found out concerning how the retrieve the ring, Dhaos arched an eyebrow.

 

Demitel concluded with, “...In other words, that human seems to be exactly what you need in order to take revenge against those humans. He is absolutely _smitten_ with you, my lord-- the ring should be easily yours.”

 

The Demon King asked, “Are you truly sure that is what he feels for me...?”

 

The dual-haired demon replied, “Well, you said you were ‘humoring’ him. You must know that he feels something like that towards you.”

 

“I did not say you could use that moment as an example.”

 

After giving Demitel an appropriate glower he seemed to think on the subject, before smiling, but it was no friendly one. “Very well. I was planning on using him either way...but I shall confirm his feelings first.”

 

_And if I truly wish to go about it in such a way._

 

...

 

Chester crossed his arms and then turned to look over at Dhaos, who just appeared. He closed his cellphone and began to stomp up to him as he asked, “Where the hell were you two?! You and Cless went ‘on a date’ for a day! I had to make up something so the school wouldn’t ask questions.”

 

The Demon King stared impassively at him before he said, “I needed him for something.”

 

Chester crossed his arms and Dhaos sighed. “He will be back soon. Now, explain to me, human. What is the significance of this day?”

 

The blue-haired high schooler replied, “Well... today _is_ Valentine’s Day, be super lovey dovey with him or just give him chocolates. Speaking of which, give these to him. They’re from me. I’d give you some but you’re some demon, angel... thing who probably doesn’t have to eat. Trust me, though, when I say the love I hold for you two is deeper than anything you will hold for Cless.”

 

Dhaos stared blankly as he took the heart shaped candy and Chester sighed. The blond replied, “Your jokes need some work.”

 

Chester rolled his eyes. “Mine are way better than yours. But for real...? Don’t even think about trying to make him your servant. I’ll kick your ass!”

 

...

 

Cless dreamed that he was surrounded in all of white, and looking around. In front of him appeared Chester, who was looking at him in the eyes, as he asked, “Do you love him?”

 

The blond-haired male blinked a couple of times and asked, “Love who? Also, is this some weird dream where my subconscious is my best friend and questions my choices for whatever reason?”

 

The dream version of Chester rubbed his temples. “Oi, don’t make this any harder than it’s supposed to be. ANYWAY, as I was saying... you know who I’m talking about. Talk, dark, and handsome. The evil guy.”

 

Cless blinked a couple of times. “Oh, you mean the guy who wants to make me his servant.”

 

“HE WHA-- You know what nevermind. I’m just going to get this show on the road. I am the power that rests inside of you and the reason that people are coming after you. In fact, if Dhaos truly knew the extent of your power, he’d use you to turn this ‘battle behind the scenes’ into an end undesirable for all of humankind.”

 

The blond seemed to be ingesting this well enough until he asked, “But wait, since when did I become Chester? That doesn’t make any sen--”

 

The dream version of his best friend glared at him as he said, “You idiot, I’m appearing this way because you want me to.”

 

Cless asked, “Well, then, what’s this about an undesirable end? Doesn’t that guy... like _me_ anyways? I don’t like him like that at all!”

 

Chester replied, “Oh stop it. If there’s one person who you can’t lie to, it’s yourself. Don’t forget when you crushed on Chester and thought it was just ‘absolute tier friendship’ or that other guy... that I can’t remember. That aside, you were born with this ability...”

 

“Wait, so what kind of ability is--”

 

_That’s for you to figure out on your own and you do well to remember that demons do not fall in love. They only are attracted to someone physically and how much they can use them to further their own ends._ Is the only thing he hears before darkness comes over him, and distant, evil laughter.

 

Cless opens his eyes, and sees that he’s wide awake in his bed. Or rather, what appears to be a rather extravagant one and definitely not belonging to Chester’s own. His thoughts immediately go to Dhaos and he blushes insanely red, as he tries to climb out of the bed, but winds up falling on his face instead.

 

_Oh god I hope Dhaos didn’t see...that..._

 

Dhaos, of course, happened to open the door just at that time, arching an eyebrow. “Human, why are you playing on the bed?”

 

The shorter blond quickly got up from where he had fallen and grinned sheepishly, until Dhaos came over to him, and Cless replied, “That wasn’t playing around, alright?! I just... fell over. Your bed is so huge, it’s weird!”

 

To his disappointment, Cless noticed that Dhaos’ expression seemed to flicker with amusement at his attempt at making an excuse. Why his life was like this he will never know. Dhaos encroached on him some more, before he said, “Human. I am going to ask you out on a date. Will you accept?”

 

Cless feels his mouth become dry all of a sudden. Dhaos was... asking him out on a date? This was like some weird dream, or well, maybe he shouldn’t have considered it _too_ surprisingly but still. This meant he was serious, right? That he wasn’t just messing around or anything...

 

Why should he care? He’s not... no... wait.

 

He’s still unwilling to be honest with himself, and yeah, it’s for good reason. He did _say_ he’d make him into his servant, but no...that was at the beginning and -- no he’s not going to lose this deal so he doesn’t have to worry about that! He really doesn’t want to be used, though. But, wasn’t he sure that Dhaos had a good side to him and really cared about him? He was starting to become nervous that it was all just an act; he’s easily lied before and he hates suspecting people like this.

 

But... he hates it when people believe he can be easily taken advantage of. So many people have thought that, just because he was so oblivious and well, admittedly single-minded at times that he’s so easy to trick or say things without him noticing. That’s because he is, but still! Plus, Cless knows he isn’t just fighting for himself here, but he’s fighting for his parents, his friends, and everyone who can’t fight this battle themselves.

 

So compared to that, this is... well. This could factor into it, but still. Just even saying ‘it was okay’ or ‘let’s do it’ seemed to acknowledge he was attracted to Dhaos, which he was still having a hard time admitting since he was nervous as to what could happen as a result.

 

“...”

 

Cless looked into those red irises that looked ever-so-calmly into his and didn’t even seem to betray a single emotion, unlike when they had been dancing. In fact, the man seemed to wait like he had time at his beck and call, and it simultaneously made the high schooler want to look away or something like that.

 

... Why was he so scared? God, he hated it! He was just trying to find excuses to get out of it, and denying his feelings. What would his father and mother say to him if they knew he ran away from something because he was too afraid to face the consequences?

 

He wasn’t going to run away anymore. Determination flickered back into his brown irises as he said, “... Well, alright. I-I’d kind of prefer it if it were in the city or something, though.”

 

Dhaos looked vaguely pleased, or well, it seemed to Cless that the man was pleased. He honestly looked kind of the same, but he’s gotten to know him enough at this point that he feels like he could tell these sort of things.

 

“Very well... we shall take a look at the sights. I have not received the chance to properly explore your city, swordsman.”

 

This type of deception started to make Dhaos uncomfortable. But he was convinced it was all part of a necessary evil. He was a demon, after all.

 

...

 

The two of them walked through the streets, and it was an exceptionally cold Valentine’s Day Cless found because he was wishing that when they stopped by Chester’s again he had grabbed something besides a jacket, jeans, and grey shirt. He shivered a little, and then found himself leaning more towards Dhaos. Cless then took a deep breath, and then reached over to grab a hold of the other male’s gloved hand, only for him to stop. The blond thought that Dhaos was going to reproach him or something to that effect, but Dhaos simply turned his head to look him in the eyes.

 

Then The Demon King brought up their hands and Cless intertwined his fingers with the taller blonde’s. “Swordsman, there is a language for flowers. Do you know the meaning of the ones you have given me?”

 

The younger male seemed to contemplate this, before he smiled slightly at Dhaos. “I do. My mother used to make me help her out with this small garden at the house we had. She planted a variety of flowers and not only did she want me to know the names, but the meanings as well. She said that knowing this would help with showing my ‘inner strength’ since not all strength or power comes from fighting or showing off that thing. Well, anyway... I kinda thought it felt like the right one for you, and it was only until later I had a second to remember what it stood for:

 

In the old days, it was ‘foolish’ but it has another meaning that not many know as well. Holiness, loyalty, f-fidelity...and there’s even ‘a strong will to win’.”

 

Cless laughed a little, and said, “It sounds like I’m putting too much thought into it, but...”

 

Dhaos was considerably surprised that the male had thought that far ahead, although it certainly had been also a lucky moment as well he supposed. It was more or less also the knowledge that could be considered just as surprising. Regardless, he interrupted with, “No. It’s fine as it is...no, it’s more than fine.”

 

The younger blond blinked as Dhaos stared at him, and then the elder of the two looked away, not realizing he was blushing a little. For the first time in a while, The Demon King felt slightly inadequate. He didn’t know if the thing he had gotten Cless would have the same value as the thing Cless had given to him. He hears Cless ask if he’s alright and he says, “I’m fine, human. It’s nothing to worry about.”

 

“Liar.”

 

Dhaos fixes the younger blonde a surprised look, wondering when he became so... perceptive before a glare. “How dare you--”

 

Cless leans upwards, to press a finger against the now-surprised demon’s lips and gives a sheepish grin. “It’s alright, you can say what’s on your mind later.”

 

This caused the older blond to just flat out stare blankly at him. _This human is such a..._

 

Then the highschooler began to pull him towards a store, by their hands, and naturally Dhaos followed suit, almost stumbling at the quick start. The demon found that the store they were in had a few interesting structures, and one even caught his eye. It seemed to be a replica of a house of some sort. But then there was more... of a even more luxurious building.

 

Dhaos hears, “Dhaos, you know, you look kind of cute when you’re looking at the stuff here. Although when I let go of you I thought I had lost you for a moment.”

 

_Cute?_

 

The Demon King scoffs. “... you’d do well to remember what I am. Certainly not someone so trite that you could call myself ‘cute’.”

 

Cless rolled his eyes. “Stop being so stiff. Oh I know-- try to catch me!”

 

The blond then sprinted through the tiny store, leaving Dhaos confused and slightly irate. He didn’t understand why this was what this human referred to as a ‘romantic’ date, but he refused to participate in any such shenanigans like this. He crossed his arms and waited for when the human would undoubtedly come back to him once becoming impatient. In the meanwhile, he’s asked by a saleswoman if he’d be interested in getting his significant other something memorable. He winds up purchasing three heart-shaped necklaces (which he doesn’t realize happen to be lockets but they are).

 

After... Dhaos wound up standing there for an hour.

 

_Honestly_ , he didn’t know why humans must persist in such trite antics. It was as if they begged for him to smite them all already. He then waited some more, before he became aware of this irritating feeling that did not assuage. It was worry, although Dhaos would be loath to admit it...but he refused to look for the man. He scowled and opened up the communicating cell device he had been given. He struggled a bit with it before auto-dialing Cless’ phone.

 

He hears a clear and crisp, yet teasing, “Yeeeees, _Super_ Scary Overlord Dhaos?”

 

Dhaos snapped at him, angry and annoyed by his games, “Why must _I_ search for you when I expressed that I didn’t want to allow myself to become lowered to playing these human games of yours? You had not returned and for a moment I thought something was amiss and do _not_ patronize me.”

 

Cless then came into view and grinned as he gave him a wave, and Dhaos clicked his cellphone shut. “Jeez, you’re no fun at all. Fine, let’s go somewhere else, we’re starting to get weird looks...”

 

The younger blond knew that they were getting more than a few weird looks already and he hated it, but he heard some unkind words that he figures that Dhaos would not understand or happened to not here...so he’d rather they just leave already. He hurried out the door of the place soon enough, not realizing his face had begun to turn red with humiliation and leave the older man confused. Dhaos was right by him soon enough though, and Cless thought to move his hand closer to the older male’s.

 

He hesitated, thinking a little about what had just happened, and finding himself pulling his hand away to his own disappointment. He knew it, he knew this sort of thing would happen, and he has so many bigger problems, but it still hurts. The judgment, the words, the whispers-- Cless almost doesn’t even notice when the both of them walk into a restaurant because he winds up colliding into someone who’s rushing on the way out. He’s shoved to the ground, and he’s angry, reaching out to grab their foot, bringing them to the floor too.

 

Dhaos steps in to stop the fight between the unnamed man and Cless.

 

Luckily, it didn’t last long enough for them to get kicked out or anyone important worth noting to even so much as notice, but it did make Cless feel silly. Until Dhaos tells Cless to wait inside while he helped escort the other man out. The younger blond sighed, sliding a hand down his face, dreading a lecture or talking to once Dhaos returns.

 

Indeed, Dhaos does return shortly, but so does the other man who is apologizing profusely, in a manner that leaves Cless confused. He accepts it nonetheless and as the two are getting their seats, Cless asked, “What was up with that guy anyway?”

 

The Demon King replied, looking satisfied with himself, “He...realized that he was in the wrong for shoving someone’s company out of the way and to prevent karma from doing the same as well as possibly from having some of his bones broken, he apologized.”

 

At that Cless blinked, before he laughed. “You have a way with words...I bet you just threatened the guy, didn’t you?”

 

Dhaos allowed his lips to slightly upturn into a smirk as he asked, as if cryptically, “Oh? Did I?”

 

The blond shook his head with a smile of his own. “Trying to be sneaky?”

 

“Sneaky?”

 

Cless then continued to smile to himself at Dhaos, and thinking that it seemed that the man did have a playful side after all.

 

Then they looked at what they had to order...and Cless ordered a few things off of the list, while Dhaos seemed to just order a drink, even if he didn’t require it. After the waiter left, Dhaos asked, “What has been ailing you, swordsman?”

 

Cless was caught off-guard by the sudden question, and he instead flickered his eyes to somewhere above, at first that ‘somewhere above’ winding up being Dhaos at first because _god he is so tall_. The next candidate was the ceiling clearly.

 

“......”

 

Dhaos’ lips curled into a frown from not hearing a single response from the blond and he asked, “Did you not hear the question I just ask--”

 

“I’M FINE!”

 

Cless got up quickly and ran to the bathroom, making Dhaos just sigh. Why must humans make everything complicated? He tried to consider what could be bothering him, and thought about earlier. Humans could be... sensitive. Perhaps he hurt his feelings somehow by his earlier words in that shop, although he’s not sure how. He just decided to wait patiently for the other to reveal himself, which he eventually did, albeit sullenly and with his cheeks colored red.

 

The shorter blond’s eyes seemed to look everywhere except the demon lord himself as he said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overreact like that. I just... a lot’s been on my mind, lately. It’s a little overwhelming and it got to me.”

 

Dhaos considered him as he moved to sit back down in his seat, and then replied, “Perhaps... you need to talk about it with someone.”

 

Cless took a deep breath and then said, “Maybe... but if it’s you I have a condition. Only if you talk about the thing that’s been bothering you for awhile too, Dhaos.”

 

“.......”

 

Dhaos heard himself took in a breath that was quicker than it should be. He then closed his eyes for a moment, considering it, and opened his eyes, looking hesitant-- then he supposed that coming clean was too much just to make this human happy. Besides, it’d just make him angrier. He was about to say something, and then some strange man with pitch black man came before their table to slam their hands on the table. “Dhaos... I’ve finally found you...”

 

All Dhaos could think was at this point, _Not this again._

 

The Demon King and Cless exchanged looks before looking at the guy. The shorter blond said, “Look strange guy, we don’t really have to want to rough someone up if it could be avoided. So can you just... leave us alone?”

 

The strange man shouted, “As if! I am Mars and I have the power of The Demon King Dhaos! _I’m_ the one who summoned him into this world, not this other blithering idiot! Therefore, the power of The Demon King is rightfully mine!!”

 

Dhaos’ eyes narrowed, as he suddenly stood up. “...I’m afraid not. There is no such thing as a mere mortal who exists, let alone a foolish, bumbling waste of life as yourself, allowed to do something like that.”

 

The man looked absolutely horrified, but then Dhaos had to ask, “How did _you_ even find me?”

 

Because seriously, he’s all but masked his energy signature at this point and some crazy moron can find him with such ease? He double-checked and he didn’t make any mistakes in the spell. He _never_ makes mistakes in his spells. The human looked pretty proud enough to say, “Because _I_ am the one who summoned you!”

 

Dhaos is so irritable at this point he wonders how the human answering ‘because I summoned you’ is a valid explanation, because he believes it’s not. He infers that it means somehow he had some kind of tracking spell on him because of it... or whatever.

 

Cless smirked and asked, “I’m guessing this is the wrong time to say ‘I told you so’?”

 

“ _Silence_. Your impertinence is a nuisance.”

  
“You don’t have to be so rude about it...”

 

“Why do you speak as if you were hurt by such a comment?”

 

“Maybe because I am?!”

 

The black-haired man clenched his hands into fists and shouted, “HEY, DON’T IGNORE ME!”

 

Both of the blonds said at the same time, looking incredibly annoyed, “Shut up!”

 

Then they went back to arguing while the man stood there being angry. Then a smile appeared upon his face, as he took out some dusty, archaic book and was about to say something. However, Dhaos decided that this was enough and teleported him straight to one of those so-called deserts. Honestly, why did people take him for a fool?

 

“Er...m. Sirs, here are your meals.”

 

Cless grinned sheepishly at the waiter. “Just...try to forget you saw anything because that’s what we’re doing right now.”

 

Dhaos noticed that during the blond’s spirits lifted until they went outside again, and that’s when Cless asked quickly, “Could we go elsewhere? Somewhere with many less people around... I mean, I think we’ve got enough of the city for now.”

 

This time, some punk speaks loud enough for both of them to hear, “Yeah, you and your boytoy can hit the road and provide us all some relief. It’s disgusting looking at the both of you.”

 

“Ah...?”

 

Cless paused, and then he felt humiliation. His mind tried to decide whether to ignore him or not (the latter involves a severe socking), but given that there are tears beginning to form and his head is a little clouded he’s afraid he’s had enough of fights for one day.

 

He blinked and looked up, just in time to see Dhaos step forward and his hand move.

 

_Slap._

 

The man who insulted them both fell easily to the ground after the blonde's hand connected with his face. Cless slid an arm around Dhaos’ waist, and the taller man asked, “How does it feel when I hit you? Does it hurt? If it does, then remember that and you’d do well to watch your place next time.”

 

The man gets up, angry as he cups his reddening cheek and starting with, “Why you--”

 

Dhaos just back-hands him and with his strength he sends him landing on the ground, once more. The people laugh at the guy and The Demon King leads himself as well as Cless away from the crowd to somewhere more inconspicuous.

 

The blond demon whisked them away, to a place he remembered when he was still in possession of his kingdom, and it appeared to be a field of grass mostly, with a wonderful night view. Both of them moved to sit down, and then Cless leaned back to lie down against the grass. He reached over to pull on Dhaos’ arm, making the taller blond sigh before lying down next to him.

 

Cless slightly smiled and decided to make his move then, and roll over so he was on top of Dhaos.

 

“....!”

 

Cless leaned forward to lightly press his lips against Dhaos’ for lack of any good words, and before he could pull away, he’s being slowly kissed back in return. The younger blond sighs softly against his lips and his eyes close as the kiss continues. He murmurs Dhaos’ name during the kiss and said demon slips out one of the necklaces, clipping it around Cless’ neck.

The younger of the two pulls back, his face completely red. “For me?”

 

Dhaos nods, and holds out another necklace, causing Cless to reach out before putting it around the older man’s neck. He grins. “I really like it! That was... really nice of you, thanks. Uh, also, I think these are lockets, so... later on, do you want to get a picture?”

 

Against his will, The Demon King found his lips quirk upwards. “... If that is what you wish. ”

 

Cless finds that his eyes are widening a bit when they do, and his face lightens up too. He can’t help it, because really, he truly believes that Dhaos’ true smile is really, really nice, and he starts to ponder how he can get that to be a constant thing.

 

Dhaos found himself feeling strange, and it was almost complete foreign for him ... since it had truly been so long since he last felt it. Happiness, was it?

 

But was there something else besides happiness he was feeling?

 

“Dhaos, if it’s okay with you, I really do think that I...uhm-- I-I love you.”

 

The Demon King continued to remain silent in that moment, as his eyes widened, and he sought to say the right thing... not what his emotions that had suddenly ran ahead of him wanted to say.

 

The taller blond felt his face become strangely hot and he heard himself ask, “...Do you truly believe I can fall in love with someone like you?”

 

Cless snickered and said, “Well, judging by how this night’s going, I’d say you already have.”

 

Dhaos felt his face continue to be traitorously hot, although he wondered how one might fit such a painting into a small trinket like this. He says,“....I...I see. Shall we go and get ourselves a picture?”

 

...

 

Chester sighed to himself as he cocked another arrow, before letting it fly straight into the tree in front of him. He should’ve known that he couldn’t have trusted the other man to bring Cless back ‘soon’ ... especially since it’s Valentine’s Day. At the thought he simply snorts to himself, before shaking his head. He hears the sound of someone coming, rather lightfooted and turns his head a bit to spot Mint with a shy smile. “Pardon me, Chester, I was just thinking about something for a little bit... and it has something to do with our situation. I’ve known Arche for a little bit longer, so I could trust her, but I think... I can tell you it as well.”

 

The blue-haired senior straightened himself up a little and gave her a questioning look as he asked, “What is it?”

 

Mint replied, after looking around a bit, “The same power that Cless holds... I have it as well. I think he’s possibly a distant relative since it is a power that’s passed down only through descendants of a certain lineage...”

 

Chester raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, before he asked, “What kind of lineage is that, exactly?”

 

The blond-haired senior replied, “Well, it’s the one that was instrumental in the defeat of The Demon King Dhaos ages ago, where history said that he rampaged throughout the world in ancients times, bringing terror and destruction to the lands.”

 

The blue-haired male froze and then his eyes widened. “So he really is dangerous after all?! But wait, if he was, then why’s he being so nice with Cless... no, not just Cless now. Hell, he’s been even nice to my sister.”

 

Mint just gives him another harmless smile as she replied, “Well, I just think... that maybe there’s been some type of misunderstanding. You see, our ancestors -- Cless and mine -- sealed him away for reasons like ‘he was much too powerful and evil’ but I think maybe there’s something else that was being hidden from us. I can’t ask now since demons and some mysterious group all but wiped out all of my family ... or so I thought. In fact, if Arche hadn’t found me when she did a few months ago...I wouldn’t be here right now.”

 

Arche grinned and waved at the other two talking, before walking closer to them, but having obviously heard the whole conversation from where she stood. The pink-haired girl moved her hand to grasp a hold of Mint’s. “Yeah I blew those assholes to sky heaven in a matter of seconds when I was walking on by and heard something strange coming from her house. Obviously I can’t just let a cute girl like her go without any help!”

 

Mint blushed. “Arche, please... and well, if you’re going to say that then, I’m going to ask that you don’t count yourself out of being adorable.”

 

The pink-haired girl giggled and Chester crossed his arms, smirking a bit. “Alright, you two, I think I’m going to drown in the red roses here.”

 

Mint cleared her throat and then said, “A-anyway, as I was saying...it looks like someone besides the demons may be involved. If not, maybe trying to cover up something. Well, a man named Mr. Morrison’s taking care of us now, but...”

 

A voice rang in, “Sorry to interrupt your talk, but it appears we might have to have one of our own.”

 

Chester turned his head to see a certain teacher standing before them, but in... ridiculous different wear--then again he wasn’t surprised considering who it was. He was wearing a dark brown jacket with a brown tophat, but... he was pretty sure that it was Klarth F. Lester. He looked pretty serious as he said, “I heard you were in league with The Demon King, Dhaos. Is that true?”

 

Arche chirped, “Nope, it’s a total lie! Don’t worry about it.”

 

The blue-haired senior thought, _Why did you have to say it like that? That doesn’t even sound the least bit convincing! Have you ever lied a day in your life before?!_

 

Either way, Chester supposed he should go along with it. He doesn’t want them to have to fight their _teacher_ of all things, as he replied, “...Yeah, what she said. I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

 

The older man raised an eyebrow and then shook his head as he took out a book. “It’s a little sad that I can see through your lies-- look you’re just kids and my main trouble is with the big guy. So do me and a favor and move out of the way, alright?”

 

Chester sighed, whipping out his cellphone to text something as he replied, “Fine. Oh and just to let you know... I don’t know where he is.”

 

Klarth blinked, before facepalming. “Of course...w-well I’ll just have to wait until he appears here.”

 

Arche then replied, “Okay, you do that! Everyone let’s go back inside, it’s getting a little cold out here!”

 

The three started to go back inside, leaving Klarth standing out in the cold. He feels like he just got tricked, or something to that effect and crosses his arms, grumbling. Then he realizes that the big guy probably wouldn’t just _walk in_ through the front door, and hurried after them. Chester turned his head to face the guy, asking, “You know it’s creepy for old men to go after kids, right?”

 

“What-- for one thing I have a _wife_! For another, I’M NOT AN OLD MAN!”

 

Mint smiled sheepishly and said, “Calm down...”

 

Chester also piped in, sighing, “Yeah, jeez.”

 

Arche grinned as she said, “We _could_ let you off the hook if you decided to become a part of our group.”

 

Chester threw the pink-haired girl a look that said _no_ but she wasn’t even looking at him. Mint seemed to also think this was a good idea and said, “Well, we do need a few more allies...”

 

Klarth’s face starting to turn red with indignation. But, wait, wait...he began to calm down as an idea came to mind and he cleared his throat. He could learn what they were all really up to -- and then of course wind up avenging that poor little girl who had been slained by Dhaos when that evil man lets his guard down. The man then replied calmly, “Alright, then. In the meantime... I hope you have been doing your homework!”

 

The blue-haired highschooler groaned and sent a glare that would send even lesser demons running as he hissed, “Nice going _genius_ now I’ll never escape from school.”

 

Arche replied, “Oh shut up, it’s going to work out great! You know what the say, keep your friends close--”

 

“You’re missing the point!”

 

...

 

Cless walked out of a photography building sighing to himself... there was one thing he hadn’t expected: Dhaos being photogenic or whatever it was called. The guy insisted that they shouldn’t even so much as leave until they have 200 or so photos. Which said guy paid for, but still, he had come in there for pictures for their heart lockets, and The Demon King insisted on striking these dramatic poses that conveyed some sort of elegance about him. “Dhaos...”

 

“Swordsman, if you believe complaining about how long the procedure took for the strange picture making will change anything, then I will enlighten you on how just foolishly human that thought process is.”

 

Cless huffed, crossing his arms, and his cheeks puffed out for just a scarce moment but Dhaos saw it enough to believe it was kind of adorable. He also thought it was fairly entertaining as well, and waited for the other blond to concede defeat. Unsurprisingly, his so-called ‘partner’ was stubborn. “Stop looking so smug!”

 

The Demon King leaned a bit forward, surprising Cless for a moment and his face turning red. But he only did it to stop just a ways from him and mutter, “...No.”

 

Then he leaned back.

 

“Why you...just nevermind let’s just head back!!”

 

Dhaos smiled to himself a little when he looked briefly at a photo of them together.

 

...

 

Dhaos arrived to spot that there was a strange man leaving the house and Chester who had crossed his arms, as he saw that somehow on their way back, Cless had fallen asleep...which is a reason why The Demon King was holding him. “1 am in the morning? Impressive. Hope he has enough rest for school in the morning.”

 

Said Demon King stared and teleported straight to the younger blond’s room. The blue-haired archer sighed and figured that was the end of that. He turned around, nearly walking straight into Dhaos’ chest, and yelled in surprise. For the first time in his life in a while, Chester felt embarrassed, and his cheeks glowed. “Dammit, is this going to keep being a thing?! Stop doing things like that, seriously.”

 

Ignoring the plight of Chester, Dhaos asked, “Why was that man allowed inside the house? I recognized him from being with that group.”

 

Chester replied, sighing, “He conceded to joining up with us, and what do you mean, ‘that group’?”

 

The Demon King crossed his arms, looking down on the bluenette. “Part of the small group that attacked myself, and had your sister become caught in the cross-fire. The one in which...” he seems to pause, as a strange look in his eyes came over that made Chester uneasy, “...Wi-- the young girl perished as well. Then, as a result, part of where that group came from died as well.”

 

Chester raised an eyebrow and then frowned himself, before asking, “Speaking of which, I need you to answer me honestly: Did you kill those people?”

 

Dhaos scoffed, the look in his eyes was still present, and he seemed to become a little menacing as he tossed the blue-haired male a glare. “I already informed you of my response to that question, last. Did I not, _Chester_?”

 

The blue-haired male got a chill down his spine and somewhere in his mind he heard his logical voice pleading that it was too late to incur the wrath of a Demon King but at the same time... he needed to know. “Is there a chance... in a spur of anger you might have slaughtered them all and tried to forget about it?”

 

“...”

 

From what Chester could see, the man had a dark expression that washed over him, and his red irises stared straight into his own. He feels like he’s trembling, and the temperature literally has dropped, as darkness began to come over the demon lord.

 

“..........”

 

Chester suddenly couldn’t move, even though he really, _really_ wanted to just then, and he felt an onslaught of anger wash over him, as well as darkness spread out in the room, as Dhaos began to levitate above him. “ _I did and I enjoyed it. They would have only have kept coming after me or...perhaps one of you. I could not risk it should it have been something neither of you could handle, and all the same how could I pass up vengeance? I made them regret their foolish practice and now... what? You’re going to try to betray me to one of them and tell that foolish human, is that it?!_ ”

 

The blue-haired man replied, “No. That’s not it at all. I needed to make sure you didn’t do it just because you could...besides, I needed to address another thing as well. You don’t need to do that sort of thing again. I’m not going to tell Cless either, but...we can do without any more needless slaughters, alright?”

 

“ _You’re lying......”_

 

Chester found himself able to move so he thought that this was a good time to walk closer to the man, who had made himself float closer to the ground now. “I’m not lying to you, and you know it. You’re smarter than that, Dhaos.”

 

Once Dhaos’ feet reached the ground he raised his hand and in a flash had it easily wrapped around Chester’s neck. “ _I’ll kill you._ ”

 

“You don’t want to do that... right?”

 

The darkness suddenly drew back at Chester’s words, and he leaned forward to press his head against the other man’s chest, making him freeze but he didn’t say or do anything about it. Then, after a bit the blue-haired male drew himself away and headed upstairs, saying, “I’m not exactly like Cless but we’re kind of similar, so I guess we both think we can work this out. And maybe, you do too.”

 

“...”

 

...

 

Arche groaned at the sound of an alarm going off early in the morning and vaguely wondered who in their right mind would get up two hours before school time. She scooted closer to Mint and grumbled, “We’re going back to yours later today, I don’t care to stick around to being awoken this early in the morning ever since you-know-who got back.”

 

The other woman replied sleepily, “I think I can agree with that...especially when school is going to be opening a little later today...”

 

They heard a small explosion go off following suit when Arche finally felt herself falling back to sleep and she whined, throwing a pillow angrily at a wall. “Oh come on already!”

 

...

 

Cless frowned at Dhaos, whose hand was raised and then fell back on the sheets as he was still lying in bed. “Seriously, Dhaos? Was that really necessary?!”

 

The spot where there was once an alarm clock was single as a mass of black ash was all that remained.

 

The Demon King just grumbled in response and pulled on the blankets. Cless was only able to make out the words ‘stupid human’ and glared in response, not that it did anything. He sighed and still rose to his feet. “I’m going to go and train outside since you’re being well, a sleepy demon and stuff. See you in a few hours!”

 

“...”

 

...

 

Cless wiped his brow after performing the last slash of the day, with a smile on his lips, as he thought to himself that his mother and father would surely be proud to see he’s keeping up his training regimen. Especially because soon... he’s going to use his experience with the help of his friends to hopefully get back at whoever killed his parents. He then sheathed his blade, feeling grateful that his father even got him one in the first place. He heard his cellphone ringing soon enough and flipped it open, not recognizing the number. “Hello? Who is this?”

 

He heard a voice say, “It’s been awhile, but after the kerfluffle I got myself a new cellphone and decided to call you up and offer my place to stay.”

 

Cless’ face lightened up as he exclaimed, “UNCLE?! IS THAT YOU?!”

 

“... Yes, it’s me. Keep your voice down or you might hurt my old ears.”

 

The high school senior blushed as he said, “S-sorry about that... I just -- I don’t know. We haven’t spoken to each other in a really long while! So...”

 

Mint had just come outside, knowing that it was where Cless had been practicing, and saw him talking on the cellphone to someone. She said, “Ah, I made some breakfast, but it seems you are a little busy...”

 

Cless whipped around immediately to face her and grinned sheepishly. “Not too busy to eat something!! Ah -- wait. Sorry uncle, yes, yes-- I’ll come over later today and I might even bring some friends! See you later.”

 

He closed up his cellphone and hurried on over to her as she asked, “Family member...?”

 

Cless nodded as he walked inside with her, replying, “Yeah, it’s my uncle...we haven’t spoken in years but he must have heard what had happened and called up on me to check if we were alright! Oh and his name is Olson so it’s fine to call him that.”

 

Mint’s feet stopped, and she asked, “Ah.. is that so?”

 

The blond haired male nodded, as he stepped into the kitchen. Then he asked, “Do you want to come? I said I was thinking of bringing friends along, so.”

 

The woman nodded. “I think that might be for the best. I mean... we’ve been all so focused on schoolwork and our own problems that it could be nice to get some fresh air for a bit.”

 

Cless nodded.

 

...

 

Mint had been waiting for the blond-haired male after school, and Arche as well as Chester appeared to be too caught up in their club activities today to join them. Cless insisted that the both of them would be fine, and texted Dhaos about where he would be going. Hopefully The Demon King finally managed to get the thing working. He received a text in reply:

 

‘very well. as long as someone accompanies you. preoccupied...!’

 

Cless snickered to himself, as Mint peered over her shoulder, and she couldn’t help but giggle herself as she said, “It’s... kind of cute, isn’t it?”

 

The blond-haired male nodded his head vigorously. “Yeah, although I wouldn’t have it any other way...”

 

...

 

Mint was amazed at the size of the house, which seemed to resemble a mansion of some type, and inevitably it was not very surprising to find that the both of them were being treated to dinner right after they had walked the whole way there. She sighed to herself as Cless made no secret out of making a mess of himself as he chowed down with little regard for manners. Sometimes, though, it was times like these that made her feel rather happy to spend her time with such a nice friend.

 

She smiled sheepishly and said, “Careful Cless... I hope you don’t wind up giving yourself a stomach ache.”  
  


Olson on the other hand, rubbed his temples as he grumbled, “You can probably forget about it. He’s always been that way, ever since he was a kid.”

 

In a few moments, said blond-haired male slumped forward and his head landed with an audible _thud_ against the table, finding himself unable to move. His eyes are wide and confused as he exclaims, “W...what?!”

 

Mint immediately stood up in her chair and then the older man whips out a pistol, shooting her in the chest just once, making her drop to the ground. The man grinned as he heard Cless scream Mint’s name, and his uncle said, “Don’t bother, I shot her through the heart. It was an instantaneous death, and even if it wasn’t...she’s going to die in a few moments. She’d have no time to react.”

 

Then said immobile boy asked, struggling from keeping himself from having a mental brain aneurysm out of pure angry and a myriad of depressing emotions at the announcement of the betrayal by his own family no less, “WHY?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!”

 

His uncle came over to him and said, “I needed to protect myself ever since your father and mother died. Hell, even that distant cousin of yours, Winona, wound up dying in this whole mess, and your aunt...”

 

He trails off and continues to say, “Not to mention, I’ve always loathed those fools... being the favorite of the family should’ve been _my_ position. Nevertheless, I got into contact with who killed them and they should be arriving to pick you up. Maybe I should count myself lucky that I arranged this just to keep myself on top of your game. They also informed me that they would dispose of your other friends as well and The Demon King himself!”

 

Cless gritted his teeth. “Why you... you’re such an idiot! I can’t believe you betrayed me because you’re a coward! Not to mention Dhaos would beat them easily with no sweat.”

 

Olson had enough and shouted, pointing the gun at the prone Cless, “Shut up you foolish boy! You know nothing.”

 

“YOU’RE THE ONE WHO KNOWS NOTHING!”

 

The older man growled and then smirked as he said, “Well, I was going to go easy on you since you were my nephew, but I suppose severely wounding you won’t be the same as killing you.”

 

A wave of regret suddenly hit the younger boy as Olson shoved him out of the chair, causing him to sprawl on the floor. Then he closed his eyes shut as he heard the gun go off a few times... but to the blond male’s surprise he felt no pain whatsoever or anything to the like. His eyes widened some as he opened his eyes to see that his uncle was lying on the ground with the bullets in his body, eyes wide.

 

He hears a female voice ask gently, “Cless, are you alright?”

 

Cless blinked and looked up to see Mint, who was smiling at him kindly as ever. The only blemish in this picture would be the small red spot on her chest. “Y-yeah-- but what about you and how come he got shot instead?”

 

Mint replied, moving to help Cless up without even so much as flinching, “Well... my specialty besides healing is all sorts of supportive magic. In that grey area, a reflecting spell also is within my ability to do...although it certainly has its limits. Also, he missed my heart more than he thought he would. I don’t know why he became so overconfident...”

 

The blond-haired male laughed weakly as Mint seemed to start casting a different sort of spell so he can move again. “Looks like you saved my bacon twice! I have a feeling I’ll get my chance to save the day sometime soon though, seeing as I always sort of thought I’m the hero type...”

 

Mint giggled a bit and then Cless grinned sheepishly.

 

Then, he heard the appearance of two people. He turned his head to see two men in the room, one with long greenish-blue hair and the other with long red hair. They looked shocked at the scene in front of themselves and certainly looked... so different than the two blonds had seen. Minus a certain Demon King himself, of course. In fact, the one with the red hair had pointy ears, even. Cless got himself ready to fight regardless and reached for his blade before realizing that since he had school he didn’t bring it with him. He groaned. Why was he always so useless?

 

The blond then decided to try for talking and he said, “Er...well, I can understand that this looks like quite the situation, but I can assure you it’s not really our fault! You see, he’s our uncle and he attacked us and, well, uh...”

 

The one with the teal-colored hair said, “You murdered your own family, that’s what I’m seeing here. He petitioned us to take him in if he handed the one who held _Gungnir_ and was under the dominion of The Demon King himself. I see it’s too late to just seal you ourselves and we need to kill--”

 

The red haired one interrupted, “Wait! Isn’t that too reckless? We don’t know what would happen if we attacked the vessel and Brambert didn’t give us any orders should we find this human deceased.”

 

The teal-haired one scoffed and then offered, “Then, why don’t we bring them to the village?”

 

The red haired one nodded before turning his attention to the two, announcing, “You will come with us.”

 

Cless’ eyes narrowed as he shouted, “Why should we do that, huh?!”

 

Mint muttered to him, “Cless, be careful, I can tell by their energy signatures that they’re definitely stronger than your uncle...and well -- they’re not even human.”

 

Cless muttered, asking, “Demons?”

 

“...No, elves. Maybe we should come along with them to find out what’s going on.”

 

The blond male blushed because he should have figured out on his own with the ears, but one of them didn’t even have as pointy ears as the other so he wondered why that was. Do all elves have different ears or something? Either way, he also soon believes Mint has a point-- he could figure out something that Dhaos hasn’t adequately explained or probably doesn’t even know. So he replied, “...Alright, we’re going. Just don’t try anything funny!”

 

The red haired one nodded, saying, “You have our word. Isn’t that right, Reisen?”

 

Reisen, the green-blue haired one huffed and scowled before saying, “No need to be so condescending, Lundgrom.”

 

“I was not being condescending. I was just making sure you didn’t try anything.”

 

“Yes you were and how dare you suggest I would!”

 

Mint sweatdropped noticing the two giving heated glares the two men were giving each other, before electricity seemed to spark as well as explode in front of hem... that’s how intense the glaring was. She winded up saying, “Um...”


	2. Luminarium

...

 

Arche sighed to herself as she found herself waiting outside of the building Chester was in, and looked at the time. It was getting late and still no text or call from her girlfriend or her friend. She wondered if something happened to either of them, and opened up her cellphone to text them something. At least she was going to, except having found herself looking up to see that Klarth had headed this way and she huffed, asking, “What do you want?”

 

The man in particular said, “I was looking for Chester. He carelessly left his homework on his desk before going off to Archery practice...”

 

The pink-haired girl snorted, replying, “Wow. It’s like his brains are on the same level as Cless’ sometimes.”

 

“Hey now, that’s not really nice to say...”

 

Arche put her hands on her hips. “What’s wrong with it? It’s not like he’s here to hear me say it or anything.”

 

Klarth shook his head before pointing behind her and she felt a sweatdrop at the words, “Oh really now?”

 

The small girl laughed and grinned sheepishly. “Oh well, I’m not taking back what I said!”

 

A vein popped on Chester’s head as he seethed. “Why you...!”

 

“Children, children, please...”

 

It seemed the both of them ignored Klarth anyway, because they got into a childish fight of sorts, complete with the comical dust bunnies. The teacher sighed, and it was moments like _these_ if he wondered how that the group he had so-called associated with could truly think the supposed people serving Dhaos were a danger. He was about to suggest that they go to home soon, if only there wasn’t a sudden spike in energy and not the good kind. He turned his head rapidly at the two, shouting, “You two, get back now!”

 

Said two turned their heads at the severity of Klarth’s tone, before a sudden heavy wind blew over all three of them. When Chester opened his eyes, he saw Arche was completely knocked out, and Klarth was standing in front of him. But not for long, since the older male collapsed to the ground shortly after, and the blue haired male saw it was because he had been impaled with what appeared to be dark spikes.

 

In pure rage, Chester drew his arrow and fired it at what appeared to be some type of grey monstrous beast, that laughed every time his arrows bounced off of its form. Oh hell, this was going to be one hopeless battle, wasn’t it? He barely moved out of the way of some rain of flames, hitting the floor and deciding to fire an arrow, feeling a happy sort of satisfaction that when its aim laid true (hitting the right eye) the monster was in absolute pain.

 

The creature roared, “As per Lord Dhaos’ orders you should allow yourself to die!”

 

The archer scoffed, running on his feet again as a few arrows were let loose at the monster, trying to find a weakpoint. “Like I’m going to let a bastard like you do that to me. Besides, that sounds like bullshit. Why would he order something like that?”

 

The monster laughed, and the ground underneath Chester erupted in an explosion that sent him flying, hitting the wall behind him with a pained gasp. He opened one eye, and knocked an arrow anyways. “Give it up! I’m going to kill all of you.”

 

Chester shot the arrow, shouting, “Over my dead body!”

 

The creature grabbed the arrow and crushed it within its claws. The towering ugly beast then reached out to the archer, only to stopped by a spell of exploding radiance, pushing it back. It turned its head over to look at Arche who was grinning. “Looks like you need to step up your game, Chester! I got this one.”

 

Gritting his teeth, Chester continued to fire a few arrows, this time aimed at the monster’s face, and this distracted the creature once more as well as annoyed it. It turned its attention back on Chester, forgetting about Arche, only to be blasted with a powerful _Flare Tornado_ that has the monster screaming. The archer’s arrows subsequently even start to cause enough damage, until the monster angrily emits powerful shockwaves that hit the two fighters with the force of a tidal wave.

 

Or that’s what it feels like to them.

 

Chester groaned as he fell to the ground and tried to get up, knowing he can’t give up here, and he heard Arche shout, “Look out, he’s going to attack again!”

 

The spellcaster in question gritted her teeth as the monster all had but lunged straight for the downed archer and knew that the next spell coming from her wouldn’t be able to stop him from being hurt. Neither could she reach him in time to possibly move him out of the way.

 

_A man with white hair, drenched in blood smiled at her, telling her that all she needed to continue was being herself and that she was already strong in her own right. Then he slumped forward in her arms, a victim of the demon who had attacked. But important to her in his own way._

 

_Another friend of hers, a brown-haired girl, lie in a pool of her own blood and Arche knew that it was fortune that she survived. Except that friend was now crippled forever. This all because of some elves who despised her existence as a half-elf despite the supposedly peace between half-elves and elves...and she couldn’t protect them._

 

Arche didn’t want it to happen again, but...

 

A few runic symbols appeared underneath them.

 

“ _Explosion!_ ”

 

The monster was stunned, just for a second by the powerful spell and Arche prayed Chester could move in time.

 

“... _Udine_!”

 

The monster was easily cleaved in two by the appearance of a watery woman with a blade, and the darkness was dispersed, leaving the archer able to rise to his feet. Chester and Arche hurried over to Klarth, to lie him against the wall before the former of the two quickly dialed the emergency number. The high school bluenette was glad that no one else was here because outside of the club it was kind of a little mess, the ground uneven and burnt marks here or there.

 

Either way, Chester mutters to the older man, “Just hold on, we’re going to get you out of this.”

 

Klarth coughed up some blood and replied, “Well, thanks to me...saving you. Just be safe out there; I don’t know what I got myself mixed into being around you... but there’s no way I was going to allow you both to get hurt.”

 

Chester pressed his hands against the wound that seemed more grievous than the others. He was afraid that the ambulance might not make it in time to save his homeroom teacher. The male gritted his teeth.

 

...

 

As the two were brought via teleportation, Cless couldn’t help but take a good look around his surroundings like Mint did. The place was generally more or less foresty than any other place’s hes been to besides Dhaos’ random haven. It had houses that looked more something out of a fantasy and had him staring more often than not before they entered into one that certainly looked more larger than the rest. He found that the four of them were standing before a pretty man with long blue hair with sharp ears that mirrored Lundgrom’s.

 

The man looked down at them, as if they were ants or something akin to that, and Cless couldn’t help but bristle at the gaze. Then, said man spoke, “I assume this is the vessel. He’s been brought here, but not the other human?”

 

Lundgrom quickly spoke up, saying, “Well, the other human was killed by him and the other descendant. Actually, I believe she handled the execution herself, but I believe these are extenuating circumstances, seeing as what their true purpose is.”

 

Reisen scoffed and interjected, “Lord Brambert, if I may. I believe that despite their original designs were to eliminate The Demon King, it’s likely they’ve been tainted, and far from able to be used in their current states. Therefore they should be taken care of.”

 

Brambert closed his eyes, as if in deep thought, then... frowned ever so slightly. “Get out of my face.”

 

“W-What? Excuse me? But I--”

 

Before Reisen could say anymore, a few elves rushed in and pushed him out of the room. “Ow, hey, stop it--stop shoving!”

 

Said man was tossed unceremoniously into a body of water outside.

 

The ruckus calmed down once the doors shut behind them and the two blonds sweatdropped a little. Lundgrom smiled and said, “Ah, what a fresh breath of air.”

 

Brambert said, seriously, but his gaze seemed to change to something bearable, “Indeed. I would second that. Now, onto business...”

 

Cless wondered if this was a daily occurrence in a place like this and hoped it wasn’t. Then, he began to speak, “You said something about me being _Gungnir_ and us being the ones to eliminate Dhaos, but -- I don’t really think the latter of the two things is necessary. I think that if we all work together we can convince Dhaos that we can all work together to make the world a better place. I’m not sure about all the details, but--I don’t think he wants this to become a bloodbath. Plus, there are those other people that are after us...

 

Anyway, I made a deal with him and all I just have to do is convince him to side with us in a few days. So...give us some more time!”

 

Mint nodded, saying, “I believe Cless has a point. We don’t really know some of the things that are going on behind the scenes in some cases, but Dhaos is a good person, and so I know it’s not impossible. All I am asking is that you believe in us before dismissing any of it...”

 

Before any of the elves could respond, Reisen busted back into the room, ringing out his hair with a disapproving frown at Brambert, who looks unaffected. Lundgrom covers his mouth as in to hide his snickering but Reisen sends him a heated glare before saying, “You’re both fools to believe that _The Demon King_ would suddenly play all ‘nicey-nice’ after being sealed for thousands of years. Do you truly think that man is sane? Even if he is not playing you all like I suspect, he is literally so close to the edge that if someone pushed him he’d be on a unstoppable rampage of rage that would be nearly impossible to stop! He is a demon, for another. In their hearts, they have the want to _be_ evil, to cause people pain for the mere sake of doing it. No matter how much time passed, and he restrains himself he can’t help the thrill he gets from killing humans. That’s just how they are.

 

Trust me, I was there when he slaughtered all of those humans. He came right into a block of them and immediately incinerated them with a large laser. I was lucky to escape with my life, of course.”  
  


Cless’ eyes narrow as he shouted and became red in the face, “What do you know?! You’re just making excuses because you don’t like him! He’s different from the rest! I don’t even believe you because he said he didn’t do it, so...!”

 

Reisen smirked and replied, “Someone’s a little naive. Obviously he’s not telling you everything.”

 

Cless clenched a fist in anger and pulled it back. “Why you..!!!!”

 

Mint gently put her hand on the fist, saying, “It’s not worth it, Cless, so please calm down.”

 

The blond haired male gritted his teeth and looked to the side, lowering his fist. He couldn’t stand it, when this man talked about Dhaos like that, it just made him insanely angry. He was sure that there would be an explanation for everything and there’s no way Dhaos would just kill indiscriminately like that. He hears Lundgrom say, “I’m afraid in this one, Reisen has a point...”

 

In that moment, Cless quickly moved towards the red head and grabbed his hand within his shouting, “You must give us more time!”

 

Said elf was about to say something, except when he looked into the blond-haired male’s eyes and felt like he was looking into something bright, especially with those brown irises pleading at him practically. He felt something else stir within his heart at this moment, and then an epiphany came to him that one of the heroes was holding one of his hands. He blushed a little. “Well, maybe if Lord Brambert allowed it...”

 

Mint stepped up to the blue-haired elf and looked at him straight in the eyes, saying, “Please, you need to help us.”

 

In a split second, the Lord made a decision faster than he’s ever had even concerning the subject of half elves. “Very well. But we’re sending one of us with you, as insurance.”

 

Reisen shouted, “What?! But--”

 

Brambert replied shortly, “This decision is final. I also need to head back in time to visit a certain someone, otherwise I’m afraid she will be cross with me. As part of the final decision, I will send Lundgrom with your party. You may stay within the village for a few days or return to your place with the help of the one I sent with you.”

 

With that the meeting came to an end, and both blonds breathed a sigh of relief. Lundgrom then inquired, “What may I call the both of you should you have any preferences, heroes?”

 

Mint blushed a bit and said, “Ah... just Mint will do.”

 

Cless, however, was more than happy to receive such a title and grinned sheepishly. “Super Duper Hero Cless Alvein!”

 

Mint sweatdropped a little as she said, “Cless, that might be a little much...”

 

The red headed elf then seemed to brighten up, saying, “N-no it’s fine, I can call him that!”

 

Reisen facepalmed, while Cless grinned before taking out his cellphone to text his two friends to tell them what happened...except he sighed when there was no service. Of course.

 

Cless and Mint headed out, followed by Lundgrom. Reisen was about to head out of the room when Brambert said, “Reisen. Don’t get in their way.”

 

The half-elf threw the Lord of elves a lingering stare before leaving.

 

...

 

The red-haired elf caught up to the two humans and said, “Wait, don’t you two want to check out our library? I think it might have a book or two that could help you both find out more about your situation a little.”

 

Mint nodded, saying, “That would be fine, yes.”

 

As they headed to the library, the red haired male asked Cless, “So, when we get back to your human world, do you wish for me to help in your training? I know some moves with a blade myself.”

 

Cless grinned and said, “Yeah! I think I’m the only one in the house who even uses a sword, really. And Dhaos has been a bit too busy to train me.”

 

...

 

The desert itself was expansive, and he remember the days that this was much more of a greenery and less of a wasteland. However, there was something of importance that required his attention. He headed towards a certain pyramid that stood, hidden from the light of this world, but easily viewable to one whose heart held great darkness within. The Demon King found that the humans he was prepared to kill that had been stationed out here were dead, and so he entered without incident.

 

He found a certain black-haired man waiting for him when he came in, and Dhaos arched an eyebrow. Mars turned to face him with a cruel smile as a few dead bodies lay at his feet and a bloodied sword in one hand. “My lord, I knew you would come this way and dispatched these pitiful creatures. Am I worthy of holding your power now?”

 

Dhaos chuckled darkly, and placed his hand against the human’s head. Black electricity crackled from the blonde's hand and surrounded the human, before dispersing. The demon lord drew back his hand and replied, “No. You still have some use for me, however. You are one of my many servants now and soon, when I turn you into a demon like the rest, you will have unparalleled power.”

 

Mars bowed his head and then gestured with his hand to the sealed door. “But of course, my liege. And this is as far as we can get, unless--”

 

The Demon King rose his hand once more and blasted a hole through the door, leaving nothing behind. He stepped forward to see that there was an expansive room with stairs that lead into a myriad of doors. He could feel the effects of the prized treasure he was seeking...strong enough to distort time even outside of the room it was undoubtedly locked within. Simultaneously he could also sense the power of illusions bestowed here or there, likely in a last ditch effort to protect the treasure from a common trespasser.

 

However... he was no common man. He was merely also taking back what was supposedly his-- stolen by the humans no doubt so they could use it to their own ends should they even remember where they’ve hidden it. Dhaos finds a strange sort of irony in that...they procured such a thing from him intending to use it but many have seemed to have forgotten about the object in the first place. Or at least, the humans who knew of it were essentially mostly murdered by himself and it seems this pathetic human.

 

The blond-haired demon teleported around the place, until he came to another door. He opened it with ease, dust falling away as he did, and stepped into a room. Thereupon doing so he saw it:

 

There was a translucent square made clearly of magic and within it was the ring, glowing blue and making the square visible in the first place. It seems Demitel’s intel was correct, however, given that the square was essentially the ‘barrier’ that required to be broken by _Gungnir_. He smirked to himself. Just three more days.

 

...

 

Cless picked up a book and squinted at it, seeing as it was entirely in elven, and so did Mint. Both of them sweatdrop, except for Lundgrom, who sort of just smirks, moving closer to the blond-haired male and reaching over him to slightly tilt the open book so he can look at it. He also uses this as an excuse to get closer to Cless. “Don’t worry about it, I can read this for you. Hmm, interesting, looks like you picked the story about the binding of Dhaos. Ahem...”

 

Cless can’t help but think, _Binding, huh?_

And his thoughts wandered a little, until his face turned red. Oh god, why was he thinking about _that_?

 

“ _When the armies of humans invaded Dhaos’ lands, and made sure to set fire to everything that they saw, covering the land in a fiery wasteland, that is when The Demon King himself unleashed his wrath upon the world. He attacked almost indiscriminately, all but the lands inhabited by elves, massacring towns and cities by barely lifting a finger. People were horrified and it was said that they sent a messenger to him. But it was said that Dhaos was filled with such anger, that the darkness had consumed his once calm and gentle heart. He outright killed the messenger, proclaiming:_

 

“ _I have send forth my own before to ask you to stop and only now when you’re at my mercy you dare to ask for such a thing? I would rather kill you all then have to deal with your hypocritical nature! Prepare yourself, for I have nothing more to say to you!”_

 

_Magicians in the lands of humans came together with the help of some half-elves to create a spell capable of sealing the rampaging demon, for he was much too strong for them to even considering facing head on. Four heroes lured him into the ruins of a city with a challenge and once he stepped upon a trap made from runes, they sacrificed a great deal of energy, finally sealing him away._

 

 _However, the humans decided to also steal his--_ ”

 

A voice cuts in, “Lundgrom! What do you think you’re doing?! Reading from the library to outsiders is a high offense!”

 

Cless groaned, noticing that it was Reisen again and said, “Well you know what who cares?! Just butt out already, you’ve done nothing but complain and be useless!”

 

The red headed elf sighed and said, “Look, you and I both know that these humans are our hope in order to avoid another calamity with The Demon King. Half-elves and humans usually get involved in these things and half-elves are part of our people -- you should know that better than me.”

 

Reisen’s eyes narrowed. If things persisted as they did, he wouldn’t be able to...

 

“Hmph.”

 

The man just walked off and Mint asked, “May I ask what is his deal-- er, problem with us?”

 

Lundgrom shook his head and replied, “Well, heroine, I’m not sure either. It’s probably just him feeling extremely inadequate or something. But if he did all he’d have to do is just lend his assistance to us and get it over with us.”

 

Cless blinked, sighing to himself and looking at the direction where he left. “Something just tells me he wouldn’t be doing any of that any time soon.”

 

The red haired elf said, “Maybe..who knows with him? Well, I’m going to bring the two books with us so I can read them to you two while we reside in your human ‘town’.”

 

Mint blinked and looked a little surprised as she inquired, “Are you sure that it’s alright to do such a thing, Lundgrom?”

 

The male in question blinked, looking serious for a moment before smiling sheepishly. “Perhaps?”

 

Cless then piped up, saying, “Wait, we’re going to need to get you a cellphone.”

 

Lundgrom extracted one from out of nowhere and showed it with a picture of a dog on it. “Here it is. I procured one awhile ago whilst on a mission with Reisen. Can you see that the inside box has my new puppy on it? I’m conflicted of a name for it...anyway. I believe we’re finished here, right?”

 

The two blonds nodded. Soon enough, they were teleported from the library, with Reisen watching and a frown upon his lips.

 

...

 

They appeared in Chester’s home, and saw two angry looking people waiting for him when they arrived. The blue-haired male asked, “Alright I must’ve texted you about ten or so times but you couldn’t even answer?!”

 

Cless held up his hands with a sheepish smile and was about to say something, when Arche interceded on her part, “Yeah what’s the big deal?! I had to wait around with a fox-eyed man--”

 

“--HEY!--”

 

“--for hours worrying myself that you got careless and got killed. Of course Mint would be fine though because she can take care of herself and she’s amazing, but you...”

 

_What’s that supposed to mean?! I’m not weak!_

 

The blond-haired male yelled, “H-hey now, isn’t that kind of rude?!”

 

Lundgrom suddenly piped up, asking, “What should I name my new dog?”

 

Chester then said, “You should name it ‘Archer’.”

 

Mint smiled wistfully and gently suggested, “Meryl.”

 

Cless sighed then said, “Maybe something like Flaming Fist?”

 

Arche offered, “Cless!”

 

“Cless it is, then!”

 

The blond high schooler in question reached up to pinch his nose. “... Really? Just-- nevermind! I’m just going to forget how quickly you two went from being mad at me to eagerly suggesting names...”

 

Cless hears his cellphone beep and looks to see it is a text from Dhaos. Looks like he’s become more accustomed to using the text function.

 

‘appears you caused a great commotion to the point where I received over twenty texts simultaneously from your two foolish friends. in case you cannot figure that out, that is roughly forty in total. rather irritating. was and still am in the middle of a meeting w/ court advisors. don’t do it again.’

 

Cless gave a sudden heated glare at Arche and Chester, and the two began to whistle innocently. “I swear, you guys are a menace!”

 

Arche said, pouting, “Well it was the second best idea we had and we thought something happened! Not even texting Mint worked!”

 

“Ah, I’m sorry...”

 

The pink-haired girl then suddenly grinned, saying, “Oh no, it’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”

 

Chester nodded, saying, “Yeah, we’re mostly blaming Cless anyway.”

 

A vein popped on Cless’ forehead. “...Why you guys...can you at least be surprised we have an elf in here?”

 

Arche shrugged, saying, “Not really. I mean, I’m a half-elf.”

 

“What--”

 

Chester added in, “Well, I’ve seen weirder. Not going to get anymore unusual. Speaking of unusual, though, we do have to tell you something.”

 

Cless crossed his arms, asking, “What is it?”

 

That’s when the atmosphere became severe as Arche smiled wryly, as she said, “It’s about Dhaos...and our homeroom teacher.”

 

Mint then nodded before adding in, “We’ll tell you about our experience as well.”

 

...

 

Cless found himself sitting down, along with the rest of them, and had his hands folded in his lap as his eyebrows were furrowed together. “...so because of that demon, Mr. Lester is in a coma? I’m guessing Mrs. Lester isn’t going to be very happy about that, but...augh. If only I and Mint had been there with you guys! This wouldn’t have happened--”

 

Chester cut in, with a wave of his hand, saying, “Don’t blame yourself, Cless. You too, Mint. You guys sort of think alike when it comes to situations like these.”

 

Mint suddenly looked up from her crestfallen expression and Arche moved to gently rub her shoulder, saying, “He has a point! We need to focus on getting stronger and figuring who exactly the enemy is!”

 

Lundgrom seemed lost in thought about something. “... It really is kind of suspicious. But for now, Cless, do you wish to get some training in?”

 

Cless nodded vigorously, standing to his feet. “I’ll go and grab my sword!”

 

...

 

Chester came outside to get some individual training in as well, but to keep a close eye on the other two. Which soon didn’t even matter, because as soon as the red haired elf and Cless stood outside, said elf did a series of complicated hand movements, making the two disappear from view. The archer sighed, and looked up at the sky. “Why can’t there be someone who is skilled in both magic _and_ archery to teach me some pointers? This would be much easier to do, but I guess I can’t complain...”

 

The blue-haired male cocked back an arrow, and shot it, only for a sudden breeze to drive it off course -- he cursed. Then, he heard the sound of someone approaching, and turned his head. “Hm?”

 

...

 

_Clang._

 

Cless’ sword connected with the blade of the elder elf, and then continued to do so as each exchanged blows that seemed to just completely match. It wasn’t a beginner illusion he was dealing with however, so he found that his right cheek had been nicked and grimaced. Well, it just made the blond try to match the other’s speed and push forward, swinging his blade in a horizontal slash.

 

Lundgrom jumped up, landing on the blade and then swung his own, the tip pointing at the blond’s neck. “...Damnit. How did you even do something like that?!”

 

The elf smiled sheepishly. “Well, for one thing I’m not human.”

 

Cless muttered and grumbled before saying, “Let’s do it again. I won’t lose to you!”

 

Lundgrom said, “Good. Now, before we begin round two there’s something I want you to do. I already know you can use a bit of your power to allow shockwaves to flow from your blade, but ... that’s not all you can do. You and Mint have a similar ability called _Resonate_. It allows you to completely sync with someone and gain super speed as well as strength. It can be useful in defeating the enemy, and possibly...

 

If you use it on the right person, you can wield the mythical blade that can render anyone cut with it, especially with a fatal blow, no more. It is said to also possess the ability to control time and space...easily even trapping those of dark heart who wish to escape -- only to force them to accept the battle between yourself or death at your blade. ”

 

The blond haired male blinked a couple of times before asking, “Wait, why isn’t Mint practicing the same thing? And... how do I do this?”

 

The red haired male answered simply, “I can feel that she already knows the ability. Don’t ask how I know this, it’s an elf thing.”

 

Cless gives him a look. An elf thing, really?

 

“Now, as for the second thing, I need you to close your eyes and concentrate. It shouldn’t take too long. You just need to think of me, in the light of a friend.”

 

The blond nodded his head. Then, he began to focus on the man in front of him, and although he hadn’t known him for too long, it was easy to think of him in a friendly light. At that, a blinding light overcame him.

 

When he opened his eyes, he found that his blade had changed to have runic symbols on it and the clothes he was wearing shifted to robes. It made him think of the time he went to spend time with Dhaos and his wear seemed to change to naturally fit the occasion. He smiled slightly to himself... wondering if this was related.

 

He wondered how Dhaos was doing...and then he imagined that when he came back he could give him a welcoming hug.

 

The blond hears, “Careful, I can hear your thoughts now since we’re connected.”

 

Cless furiously blushes and exclaimed, “W-what?! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE?!”

 

Lundgrom crossed his arms and said with a smile, “Just kidding.”

 

The blond double facepalmed. It’s like everyone wanted to troll him today. Well, minus Dhaos and Mint, of course...

 

“Cless, I will tell you though... this power was originally given by the magicians who helped make the seal that the heroes used to to lure Dhaos into when they fought him. It is inherited by the descendants of those heroes, of which you, Mint, and Mint’s caretaker are. It was originally intended for those descendants to _Resonate_ together and create the ultimate weapon capable of slaying The Demon King if the seal was broken.

 

If we can’t get Dhaos to go along with us, that is what we’re going to need to do. Keep this in mind.”

 

Cless clenched a fist at hearing this. He won’t allow such a thing to happen. He’s sure it won’t be necessary. “...That won’t happen. Now, come on let’s do this!”

 

Once again the blond brandished his blade, despite his wear, and came at the red head, who raised his hand, water coming at the swordsman in a high pressured spell. Cless dodged around it and swung in a upwards crescent uppercut. The red head jumped back, as it cut a bit through his own clothing, and nicking his right cheek. He looked pleased. “That’s it, hero. Come!”

 

...

 

The blond panted, before sheathing his blade.and both of them seemed to be rather tired from that bout. “You did markedly better on the second half. Granted, you have great skill, but not everything will come from just that in this case. Using your power and skill will make you an exceptional warrior. Anyway... I realized I left something at the village. I’ll return shortly.”

 

Cless nodded and figured it was about time for a bath, when Lundgrom sent him from the training facility in the village to back to his home.

 

...

 

Lundgrom returned to his home soon enough, in order to pick up his pet, seeing as he figured he would be living there for quite awhile. Once he kneels to scoop up the small dog, he feels a presence behind and turns his head. “Hm?”

 

Reisen smirked, standing above him before the red head sighed. “Reisen, you’re going to be the death of me someday. It’s rude to come into people’s houses without knocking first. What is it you require from me?”

 

The half-elf simply stated, “Nothing much. I just need you to turn into a monster. Love is a potent ingredient in the spell, even platonic.”

 

The elven magician’s raised an eyebrow. Then he proceeded to carefully place the dog down, before turning around slowly. “Stop joking around... _RAY_!”

 

The spell disintegrated into thin air and Lundgrom cursed, as runic symbols began to glow beneath them. “Too late. I already prepared the spell. Now that you’re under my control, you can’t hope to defeat me. Goodbye, Lundgrom.”

 

The red head closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he was no longer himself.

 

...

 

Cless stretched a bit after taking a bath and heading out in a black t-shirt and tan-colored pants. He looked over to see Chester sitting on the couch with what seemed to be a new bow, and the blond asked, “Where did you get that?”

 

Apparently the blue-haired male was waiting for that moment, for he got up and made a small pose before gracing his best friend with a grin. “Someone gave it to me. They told me ‘it’s not safe, take this’ and handed it over without much of a fuss. I found out that it can give my arrows magical properties and such...looks like you don’t have to worry much about me being useless--”

 

The blond interrupted, “Chester, never have I considered you to be useless.”

 

The bluenette was stunned into silence and his eyes went to look at the floor before sighing to himself, shaking his head. “Honestly, Cless... you compliment me too much.”

 

Cless stepped forward and was about to say something, when he received the words in his head: _Hero, unsheathe your blade, for a monster comes your way._

 

When the ground shook, the blond found that it was probably wise to believe those words. He, along with the other three in the house rushed out the door. As soon as they stepped out, he noticed their surroundings were warped...as if they were in another dimension. _Probably to keep a certain someone from interfering_ , Cless hears.

 

The high school fencer recognizes it as Lundgrom’s and nods his head. _So, wait...how do I do this again seeing as I’m still connected to you?_ , the blond asks in his own head as he’s moving in for an attack with his blade.

 

As spells are flying from Arche, as well as arrows, and Mint’s magic, it holds the monster back somewhat until it does a large tail-sweep that even causes all of them to fall over. Then a heavy barrage of flame, which Cless rises his blade up to block for some inane reason, and Mint’s quick barrier doesn’t last too long. _Think of me in a positive light, your friend, associate... that sort of thing, and cling to it until you feel the thought truly resonate in your heart._

 

An explosion of fire magic that results in them all being hit comes over them. Chester is flung into a wall, becoming knocked as his head hit it first after the flames had blew him back. Arche is doing all she can to counter with her own water magic -- Tidal Wave being unleashed as Mint struggles to revive their archer.

 

Cless finds himself getting up and rubbing at his face away the soot after being hit as well. He focuses on the idea that his friend is with them, and for someone like him, he finds it relatively easy, considering. He hears, _That’s it, now, let’s do this_!

 

Feeling the power of himself grow he runs towards the monster, jumping to the right and cleaving right through it. He can hear the beast stop for a second and his friends holding their breaths (even a barely awakening Chester) before the thing collapses. The blond-haired male turns his head to look at them with a triumphant smile.

 

_Thank you... for being my friend, Cless._

 

He’s confused as their expressions turned into vaguely horrified or shocked ones as the other dimension fades away until when he looks down to see there’s a certain red-haired elf drenched in his lifeblood but certainly already dead with a smile on his face. It’s also not hard to miss the tears on his face.

 

Cless stands there, shocked before he shouted, “Why didn’t he just tell me what was going on?! We could’ve found a better way--”

 

He’s interrupted with, “--Probably not. I sense the presence of a secondary spell that was placed on that poor elf. It either prevented him from telling you it, anything else, or if you did reverse him back to his normal form it could trigger it in a disasterous combination.”

 

Mint turns her head, to see that it’s another red head standing there with his arms crossed, although he was certainly one she easily recognized. She gave him a somber smile, before replying, “Ah... Morrison, I’m glad you arrived.”

 

Cless angrily threw his sword into the ground, and picked up the elf’s dead body. “I’ll be right back.”

 

He began to move to the far side of the backyard, before he heard someone say, “I can help you with that. Although I believe he would prefer to be buried in the Elf Colony.”

 

It was Reisen, crossing his arms. Cless nodded, feeling like he should at least do it properly, before they both heard a blue-haired archer say, “I’m coming as well.”

 

Chester had decided to follow the blond, planning on helping him bury the body anyway, because, well, Cless certainly needed the support. His eyes narrowed at the glare the half-elf passed him. “The hero will be enough and really humans aren’t supposed to be walking around the Elf Colony as they should, so you will only cause tension if more than one were to come.”

 

The archer snapped, “I doubt it.”

 

Reisen didn’t have time for this, so he finished the teleportation spell he had been preparing in his head, making himself and Cless having been brought only. Chester gritted his teeth before hurrying back to the others, stating, “We need to get to the Elf Colony. Now.”

 

Arche frowned, saying, “Only a pure-blooded elf knows the spell..or someone who’s lived long enough and powerful to bypass it themselves.. There’s nothing we can do for now and really... I doubt anything too bad is going to happen. All they’re going to do is some funeral right? One we can’t really attend, but...”

 

Chester slammed his hand into a tree. “That’s _not_ the point.”

 

Then the blue-haired male marched off, leaving them to just stare. Morrison said, noticing the girls beginning to start after the other man, “Leave him be. In the meanwhile, you may explain to me as to these recent energy surges...”

 

...

 

One of the things Cless didn’t exactly expect when he returned to the place in particular was to be suddenly accused of murdering the red haired elf. Brambert mentioned something about Reisen showing him a photo of him covered in blood with his blade and... well while he couldn’t deny it every time he tried to say something he was interrupted. As well as told to be quiet if he knew what was good for him. Naturally this didn’t sit well with him and with no one to hold him back he unwisely launched into a series of words such as, “You know what?! If you can’t tell that something’s wrong here then YOU’RE A GIANT IDIOT!!”

 

Needless to say he was dragged away kicking and screaming out about said elf being turned into a monster. But by then, even Brambert considered it too late. He would hold a trial and see what was to be said then. For now, he chose to do some mourning.

 

...

 

He was thrown straight into his so-called ‘jail cell’ which in this place was just a locked room with a single bed and a sheet. He grumbled more obscenities to himself before crossing his arms, and then reached for his phone...before the blond remembered the extreme lack of service this place had. “Damnit! Screw everything!”

 

Cless vented his frustration out on the wall nearby, kicking and punching at it until his hands felt the burn. If only he hadn’t left his sword back there...then again he didn’t think this would happen. Why do all these crazy situations have to happen?!

 

Gritting his teeth, he hardly even noticed when the door to his room opened.

 

The blond-haired male turned around to spot that it was the one who got him locked up in the first place: Reisen. Said blue-haired elf walked closer to the male, who spat at his face. “What do you want with me, you bastard?!”

 

The half-elf wiped the saliva off of his face before saying with a cruel smile, “I was going to go easy on you for the interrogation session, but now...since you ‘attacked’ me I suppose not.”

 

Cless took this to mean that he should go into an attack, even if he was weaponless. He pulled his fist back, but at the same time Reisen snapped his fingers and the runic wrist bands that had been slapped around the blond’s wrists forced his arms behind his back. The male felt his face hit the ground and groaned, feeling embarrassed. Damn, he really hated this guy.

 

Said blond felt fingers grip him by his hair and force his face to look up. Cless glared until he saw that Reisen hovered a knife dangerously close to his left eye-- then at that the blonde's heart felt like it was going to stop. Any smart words were swallowed in that instance and at that the half-elf looked satisfied. “First order of business, how do you know Dhaos?”

 

“He just showed up in my room.”

 

Reisen raised an eyebrow, looking perturbed but he supposed this supported Mar’s claims. Then he asked, “What’s Dhaos’ greatest weakness?”

 

Cless looked at him like he had two heads. “Look, the guy hardly talks about himself, how am I supposed to know _that_? Would anyone like him go around telling people that anyway? And even if I did know, why would I tell you?!”

 

The half-elf supposed that was a dumb question. He wondered how this guy could be so ignorant. He figured that he’d have to get the answers out of Cless’ subconscious...the ones he discovered in his distant past life. He heard the tales that one who possesses _Gungnir_ is an _Old Soul_...specifically the one who has held a life where he was one of the heroes that was instrumental in Dhaos’ defeat thousands of years ago.

 

Reisen was frustrated-- he didn’t know why or how no one could have written down The Demon King’s weakness but he knows that it exists. A spell that he’s weak to...and yet how could no one have thought to write it down?

 

Truly, it seems that even elves and humans were fallible. Humans obviously moreso, and he can think of his meeting with the one that called himself Mars. A fool would have been able to ignore a human wielding such magic like that and one who was obsessed with The Demon King as well as his power.

 

He had done the gentlemanly thing to inform that man he had screwed up the summoning spell as it were, hence the blond demon’s more calm disposition and wrong location appearance. But besides that...

 

The half-elf knew that he couldn’t get the answer by pushing into the blonde's mind as it were; he’d attempt to keep everything under lock and key even with a spell because of their unfavorable relationship. He’d have to use some sort of trauma to distract his mind...and he smirked. He had the solution held right in his fingers.

 

Cless’ eyes widened as Reisen decided the best bet would be to unleash an illusionary mind spell that contained memories from when Mars murdered his parents gruesomely, in a loop, and the follow up would be involving something very sharp being stuck into part of his head.

 

...

 

_Help..._

 

Chester’s eyes snapped open. He quickly removed himself from the bed, and began to quickly get himself dressed. He put on a blue-long sleeved shirt and then some tan-colored pants that he wouldn’t miss if they got damaged. Shoes were next, before he grabbed his bow, and then rushed out of his room. His sister rubbed at her eyes, standing in the hallway, before asking, “Bro, where are you going...?”

 

A sweatdrop slid down his head. “Just for a nightly walk, go back to sleep.”

 

“But...someone was asking for help.”

 

Chester sighed and went to pat her on her head. “It’s going to be fine, alright? I’m going to take care of it.”

 

Accepting that response the blue-haired girl smiled sleepily and walked back to her room. Then, as he rushed downstairs, he saw Arche, and Mint waiting for him. The blue-haired male huffed to himself. Sometimes he’d _like_ to be the first one to have heard everything and wait for the others... although it seems that would never happen.

 

That aside, he knew it was much too important for them to _not_ try to find a way to enter now. But before he could even suggest anything (or any of them for that matter), he felt a surge of energy and then there was the appearance of The Demon King himself. He said simply, “Go where I cannot.”

 

Then he seemed to conjure a portal that crackled seemingly dangerously with dark lightning and the like. The two women all but lept in first, before he nodded himself, going through the portal as well.

 

Dhaos himself just had to wait for them to return... because there was an ancient spell that kept even one as powerful as he from entering. He turned his head, however, when there was the approach of another he didn’t recognize.

 

Morrison said, crossing his arms, “...So what they said was true. I can’t believe they would decide that someone like you was even close to being a trustworthy ally, let alone a so-called friend.”

 

The blond-haired demon smirked. “Are you mad?”

 

The red-haired male sighed to himself. “Look, unlike them, I’m just not going to fall for your pretense of a friendly relationship. When you try to put your evil plan in motion, I’ll be there to stop you.”

 

“What kind of evil plan do you believe I have in mind, pitiful human?”

 

Morrison replied, “The kind that involves robbing everyone of their humanity or the enslavement of humankind.”

 

Dhaos seemed to decide not to say anything for a moment, as his eyes stared carefully at this human in front of him. He was close...although he considered turning every single human to demons as akin to basically enslaving the human race. It would produce both results and better ones that way in any event. “Truly, are my goals any of your business? You should go with my human friends.”

 

Morrison raised an eyebrow and an amused gleam came to his eyes.

 

“..........”

 

Dhaos picked up the male, “W-woah what are you--”, and hurled him into the portal with just one hand. He didn’t mean to add in ‘friends’ in any sort of way at all. But he supposed he _could_ refer to two of them as such. Cless alongside Mint would probably be beside themselves with glee, and then Chester as well as Arche would likely never stop running their mouths about it.

 

_Cless..._

 

He lifted his hand, the one that had been injured by the so-called demonsbane barrier of that locale. Because of it, even he could do nothing. He felt a pang in his chest, and he just had to hope for the best. However, he could tell that even now the human was in pain and it hurt him that he was being all but useless.

 

Frustration came over the demon.

 

...

 

Chester found the other two hiding behind some bushes while some sort of ceremony was being conducted-- which he presumed to have been the funeral that Cless should’ve been attending, but...he sighs. Obviously something is going on behind the scenes and they’re going to have to figure out what. At least he could sense where the blond was, strangely enough. He looks at the other two, giving them a nod as a confirmation if they were ready to go or not. They were about to get a move on, but then a certain red head fell on Chester out of nowhere.

 

The poor blue-haired male made a pained, “Ow! Hey, watch it!”

 

Morrison groaned himself and murmured, “Getting too old for this...”

 

Mint found at least a bit of comfort that the portal still was active and they could leave through if necessary although Arche facepalmed. It was times like these she wished she foresee stuff like this...it was a miracle no one had noticed the noise. Quickly she ushered them along another quieter path, that led towards the one place he was being kept. To their ‘pleasant’ surprise they found no guards of any sort awaiting them...although it did raise concern all the same in them for different reasons. Why would he have no one at least patrolling outside his room?

 

With one well-placed fire spell she blew the door back, and found that there Cless was, face down, lying on the floor of his so-called prison room. There was a little bit of blood pooling around his head in the front.

 

...

 

Dhaos was beyond livid at first, and so was Chester, but the latter tried to calm down knowing that giving into anger wouldn’t help fix anything. He wasn’t surprised to find that the blond had taken off immediately, likely to obliterate a few things or so.

 

When they brought Cless back, they learned his mind was all but shattered and even Dhaos knew it was too much to risk to go into his mind to figure out what happened or try to piece everything together. Mint had been able to heal his physical wound to the best of her ability, but considering... it wasn’t truly enough.

 

For once, they were lost amongst themselves, feeling incredibly upset that this had happened to someone so dear to them, and yet they had been unable to prevent it from happening.

 

Morrison, however, knew that things couldn’t carry on as they were. But, he didn’t know how to raise their spirits, other than suggest they take a break and then in a few days think of something that could help Cless.

 

However, little did they know was that he was soon to be rejoining them faster than they thought.

 

...

 

Dhaos himself had gone to wash up a little, which had involved washing his face in the bathroom due to having a nightmare. One in which he can barely remember anything that happened no less, but it had haunted him anyways. After he was done, he made sure to dry his face, and his red irises flickered up to the mirror in front of him. He saw himself there, covered in blood, for the briefest of moments, staring right back at him. It was a sad image and he had a feeling that the blood was his own.

 

The Demon King closed his eyes, now more haunted than ever.

 

...

 

_Cless saw in front of him a garden, and beyond that a few intricately made gates with the rest of the land in its natural state. He felt himself move and feel as if he needed to go to meet someone important. Yes, that’s right...someone important to him back then and even now, still. However, he watched instead as suddenly the land beyond the gates were engulfed in magical explosions that turned the peaceful place into a raging inferno. He’d never forget the sight before him, the sudden appearance of a man shrouded in darkness, levitating above the inflamed city. He would be beautiful, with that flowing blond hair and handsome features if he wasn’t smiling so evilly._

 

_Cless heard himself ask, “Who...who the hell are you?!”_

 

_The man announced after a laugh, “I am The Demon King Dhaos, the one of which you people so claimed I was a monster beyond redemption and made up grandiose lies to justify attacking my lands. Now, you too, shall know the sorrow and despair...”_

 

_He could tell that this is where his thoughts suddenly branched off, and the thought came (which he wasn’t his own..or had once been) that ‘this’ was the demon that his country’s leaders had insisted to going to war with. He had concluded that they had been right, and before he could say anymore, the memory disappeared._

 

_Cless knew better now, however... that such a thing while not righteous did not mean Dhaos was the only one in the wrong. In fact..._

 

Cless groaned as he awoke and carefully sat up. He saw that he was back in his own room, and stretched a bit. He rose a hand to the left side of his face and felt the bandages there, before smiling sadly to himself. Even with a healing power, there was damage that was likely irreversible, huh?

 

Oh well, this didn’t mean it was the end... no, this was just the start of the beginning, and in a couple of days when the time for the challenge was up, that was likely when the real battle would begin. Or maybe before then, considering.

 

The blond-haired male went to the door in front of his room after putting on a long dark blue short sleeved t-shirt with the red words HERO on the front and some baggy green jeans. He figured it was sometime late, considering that no one was up, or maybe it was really early... which clued him on that he should have looked at the time. He could probably have counted himself lucky that he had no tests relatively soon, because he’d be screwed over at this point. Speaking of which, though, he had to figure out a way to explain this to the school... which he guessed would include lying.

 

Cless stopped walking, on account of someone wrapping their arms around him from behind and pulling him back from the door. He heard a familiar deep voice ask, “Where do you believe you’re going...Cless Alvein?”

 

The blond who was asked such a question, was interrupted before he could even reply as Dhaos said, “If you are thinking you are to leave without a single word to myself proceeding such an incident, you are sorely mistaken.”

 

There was a twinge of guilt within Cless’ chest and he replied, “Dhaos, I--”

 

“--If you are to apologize, you should do well to remove the notion from your mind.”

 

Cless’ feels some surprise, and he turns himself around in the embrace so he could see the man’s face. He asks, “Why? I mean if I had brought my sword with me...”

 

Dhaos replied, frowning, “Indeed a different scenario could have occurred but knowing you, it would have involved more trouble,” Cless gives him a Look, and the tall blond continues nonetheless, moving a hand idly to stroke at the younger blonde's hair, “However such a thing did not occur. If you are to apologize for not being able to foresee an outcome then I will say that’s foolish. It is done. As you are now, you will even require to likely receive more rest. It is a miracle you are awake now, just a day after that mess.”

 

Cless blinked a bit before grinning sheepishly. “Yeah... I guess you’re right. Thanks so much!”

 

“...”

 

The Demon King stares before Cless moves to pull away and he says as the human walks out the door, quietly, “...You’re welcome.”

 

The smaller blond doesn’t close the door though and says, “You know, you can join me outside if you want.”

 

Dhaos blinks and then after a long moment decides that he wishes to do just that, coming outside to see that there was the blond was standing in front of the small spot of greenery behind the house. He moves closer to Cless when he notices that there is a silence that prolongs, and finds himself to find the high schooler lent against his side as he did so. He allows him to do just that.

 

Cless mutters, “Hey, look, it’s starting to snow.”

 

Dhaos says in return, “... So it has.”

 

In a few moments, the blond young male turns so he can hug The Demon King. He returns the embrace, liking... no, loving the feel of the smaller one in his arms. He hears Cless sigh contently.

 

Then, the smaller blond unexpectedly asks him, “Dhaos... can you tell me something? What’s keeping you from making your move, other than our agreement?”

 

Dhaos figures that since it’s coming up soon, there’s no sense in hiding it. “There is an item I seek. I have found it, and technically I cannot reach it without your assistance.”

 

Cless raised an eyebrow and pried, asking, “Technically?”

 

The Demon King replied, “I would require to sacrifice three specific people otherwise. However, I am not taking that route.”

 

Cless smiled at him, and Dhaos turned his head to the side, adding darkly, “That doesn’t mean I’m not prepared to sacrifice any human who decides to get in my way.”

 

“Too late.”

 

Dhaos scoffed at the other blonde’s words before asking, “What is it you mean by that?”

 

Cless simply said, still smiling, “You just said something like that because I thought it was nice you didn’t want to hurt other people to achieve stuff. Well... other humans anyway. I think it sounds like a good thing to me, either way.”

 

The high school blond notices the frown that adorns the older male’s face once more and feels him begin to pull away. However, Cless decides in that moment to cling tight to him and press his head against Dhaos, effectively causing the man to freeze. “It’s okay to admit something like that to someone you love.”

 

“...”

 

Dhaos feels his face suddenly burn and his chest become heavy in the way that it does when one says it ‘is filled with knots’. He decides to allow the human to speak some more, who winds saying with a grin, “It’s kind of nice when I’m not the one being embarrassed for a change.”

 

Perhaps that was a mistake.

 

Dhaos just gave Cless a reproachful look in response, before sighing. There was something he had been itching to say, although not certainly _comfortable_ with saying, nor expressing. “...When I saw you as you were, I became shortly...”

 

The Demon King trailed off and frowned, thinking better of it, or perhaps he should say the rest in a noncommittal sort. But truly ... what would be the point of that? Cless seemed to have figured it out before he could continue and asked, “You thought I died?”

 

“I did not _believe_ so--”

 

“--but for a second you were scared I had?”

 

“...”

 

Dhaos fell silent, and part of him expected the human to laugh at him because he believes all signs he showed pointed towards _yes, he was_. Not to mention that he was sure that even back in those times he had scarcely showed such a thing, even when others had. The only other time he remembered feeling such an emotion so vividly was when everything went to hell in the city of Euclid, and subsequently the rest.

 

However, the smaller blond didn’t laugh at him. He just leaned upwards, and the taller male helped close the distance in a good-lasting, sweet kiss. Dhaos’ fingers moved to caress the other blonde's shorter hair, and when their lips parted from the kiss, decided that he could encircle his arms around Cless’ waist once more. He even decided he wanted another kiss, about to lean in to do so.

 

Dhaos saw that for a moment the other male’s appearance changed, to one with dark brown hair, and this sparked him to move away from Cless. He could feel his head start to hurt for a moment. This made the younger male inquire, “Uh... is there something wrong?”

 

“...”

 

The Demon King turned so his back was facing him. “It’s nothing you should be concerned with.”

 

The smaller blond felt his face go red as he yelled, “Like hell it isn’t!”

 

Dhaos sighed to himself before he felt the other grab his arm, knowing when the other got like this there was no way out of it, and he said, “... Then it is something you wouldn’t understand.”

 

Cless said, looking up at him, determined, “Try me!”

 

“...”

 

The blond-haired male huffed and pouted, standing up on his feet, causing Dhaos to turn around but wishing he hadn’t for a second because now he has to really face it. Perhaps he could stonewall his human lover some more so he could avoid speaking about the subject at hand. However Cless shouted, “Come on already! Tell me! I want to know... I _have_ to know why it made you pull away with me and... well. You made this look too, like you were disgusted, at me. Was it something I did?! Or said--”

 

The taller male’s eyebrows furrowed and he answered quickly, “--No. It’s not your fault. In fact... I’m not sure of it entirely myself. Many years have passed, making some memories scattered. Yet, your appearance came to resemble someone I must have known at one time, but possibly have forgotten. That is all.”

 

Cless grinned, saying, “See, that wasn’t so hard! Now I know nothing’s the matter.”

 

“...”

 

Dhaos put his hand on the top of Cless’ head and ruffled his hair, with a straight face to boot. That only made the younger male’s embarrassment worse. “H-hey, cut it out!”

 

Cless heard the older male chuckle as he flailed, but then he decided it was time for _revenge_. He quickly retaliated by shoving his hands up Dhaos’ sides, fingers mischievously exploring and touching for a purpose. This caused the older male to freeze in shock, and then...

 

“Pff--ha-- _human_ stop your antics this once.”

 

The younger blond grinned and continued said antics, which made Dhaos have to quickly grab his wrists. Cless then grinned real wide as he said, “Oh look I made the fearsome Demon King all pink in the face! Looks like the hero is on the way to his grand victory--grahh!!”

 

Dhaos had quickly hefted the troublesome blond over his shoulder, and said, smirking, “Perhaps if I carry you around like this then you shall stop saying such silly things and being an embarrassment.”

 

Cless began to beat his fists playfully against the other blonde's back. “The Hero Cless Alvein doesn’t give into ravenous demon lords! You’ll have to try harder than that to defeat me!”

 

Said Demon King figured that he should give a prize to this one, since he’s one of the first that’s made him roll his eyes in what may have been eons. He was many things admittedly, but ravenous was not one of them. “Judging by your silence, I bet you were just overwhelmed by my cool performance as an awesome hero, right?!”

 

“.........”

 

Dhaos carefully rearranged Cless from being over his shoulder to carrying in his arms, and noticed that the blond was smiling so brightly at him. He wondered how it was after even all of that he could smile and joke so easily. Maybe it was because of his human friends...

 

The Demon King asked, “... Are you truly faring so well?”

 

Cless blinked and replied softly, “Well... if I’m being so honest, even when I woke up I wasn’t. Everything felt like I wasn’t altogether until I saw you again. So right now, yeah, I am, and it’s because of you.”

 

Dhaos smiled slightly and said, “Good.”

 

...

 

“ _You’re the one who buried his hate. With your power you--”_

 

Cless groaned, opening his eyes again. It was time for early morning training.

 

...

 

This next day, thankfully a day on the weekend, Chester happened to rise when it was morning, and saw that everyone seemed to be converging in the living room and that for once he was the last one to know what was going on. Or rather late to the meeting, and he frowned, crossing his arms, before his eyes landed on Cless. The words he had been preparing to say fell flat and he just hurried over, putting his arms on his friend’s shoulders. “... Are you feeling alright, Cless?! You’re up faster than I thought you’d be!”

 

Cless smiled slightly, before giving him a tight hug. “I’m doing alright, or well now I am thanks to you guys. As much as I’d like to spend more time hugging it out, I think I know the cause of our problems, or least a big source of them.”

 

The blond reluctantly pulled away from Chester and adorned a severe look as he moved to stand in the middle of the room. “I don’t know how he did it, but Reisen had somehow tricked Brambert into locking me up for a day while they were supposedly enacting a trial of some sort because he was convinced that _I_ killed Lundgrom...which I guess I did but. It wasn’t like I knew it was him or that I had known he was turned into a monster and the guy couldn’t tell me until it was too late.

 

He tortured me a little because he was looking for Dhaos’ weakness, and I guess seemed to believe I was still hiding it so he thought doing so would open up my mind to his weird ... whatever the hell it was spell.”

 

Everyone seemed to be fairly silent, except for Dhaos, who said simply, “I’ll find him and kill him. Problem solved.”

 

Chester scoffed and said, “Not if I do it first.”

 

...

 

Mars smirked as he stumbled upon what appeared to be the place where Dhaos had been sealed before and now he realized he should have known sooner. Underneath the soil in the Alvein’s home of course was once the land The Demon King himself had been resting under. There had been a seal on the basement door, however. One easily broken now given the passage of time and it had been on such an earlier spell that no one had thought to improve upon.

 

Given the fact that as he descended deeper there was faded blood splatters all over the walls he had a feeling that this was the struggle, maybe still visible by virtue of magic. Thereupon the last floor he noticed a coffin that had been broken open, likely from when Mars used the spell, but there was a bounty of dark energy still remaining within.

 

He smirked at himself for a little bit, feeling accomplished. Soon, he will become praised as the ruler of the world if his entire plan went through well and everyone will be his slaves! Yes, that’s right no one would defy the might of Mars Udole.

 

With a few more words from the ancient scroll handed to him by that helpful half-elf, Reisen, he continued to recite the rest of the spell that would break the seal properly.

 

...

 

Cless nodded, and said, “We’re all going to do this together!”

 

Dhaos frowned slightly and said, “... Every time you leave this house, something happens to you. I heard about what happened with your so-called foolish uncle, even.”

 

The blond-haired male shook his head. “You can’t be seriously trying to keep me from leaving. Besides, they’ll try to come after me whether I’m in this house or not. And--”

 

The demon interrupted with, “Very well. You will prove to me you have become strong, enough to even use your power competently in battle, and can still fight with that... injury of yours. You will fight me.”

 

Arche asked, “Wait a minute, isn’t that a little harsh? Well, it makes sense but at least hold back or something...”

 

Morrison said, “I don’t exactly trust The Demon King to be the one to do this. I can prove enough of a--”

 

Dhaos snapped at him, “ _No._ Anyone else is insufficient. It must be me!”

 

Chester sighed and shook his head. “No use convincing him otherwise, other than probably getting him to not go full out on Cless. We can all agree on that one, right?”

 

Mint looked over at Dhaos, noticing he looked rather tense. She wondered if it was because of Morrison’s presence, but hoped not. “I hope so....Dhaos?”

 

For the first time in his life, Cless feels that a fight from the onset is going to be daunting if not impossible to win. But no, he shakes it off. He has to do this, even if his lover is a hardass he will show him!

 

Dhaos in the meanwhile seemed to linger in response to the blond-haired woman before answering shortly, “...No.”

 

The blond went to draw his blade, which he now keeps held around his waist, and then went to charge at him as Dhaos whisked them elsewhere.

 

Chester just scowled and crossed his arms. “That guy is getting to be so difficult lately. It’s like talking to a damn wall.”

 

Mint smiled weakly and said, “Well, considering what’s going on lately, I’m not surprised, actually. All we can do is try our best and hope it all comes out okay.”

 

Morrison then frowned and said, “However, I’m going to say that keeping an eye on the guy will prove-- oh hold on I received a text from Klarth. He said he’s going to be well enough to come out in a week.”

 

Arche snorted, saying, “Knowing that old man’s luck he’ll miss all the action!”

 

...

 

The place he was sent to seemed to be in some kind of dark hallway, probably purposely so but Cless was already running straight at his combatant. He saw the man simply hold up his hand to block the sword swung at him, before using his other hand’s palm to shove at him at his chest. But such a thing from a being like him not holding back meant he was easily sent sprawling across the ground. Cless quickly got up and charged straight at Dhaos again.

 

“How foolish.”

 

Dhaos rose his hand up again and this time Cless thought ahead enough to use a feint, swinging his sword to connect it with the older blond’s side. “Looks like you got care--oof!!”

 

Soon the would-be blond swordsman was eating rocks and found that he was upside down against a wall, groaning. Stupid rock spells from underground. Although he sort of noted that when the sword _had_ made the briefest of contacts, there had been a strange sound. He looked at his blade for a second and noticed there wasn’t any blood on it...which was a relief in of itself but it didn’t even seem like the other male’s clothing was torn in the slightest. What the hell was it and he made out of?

 

Then he realized he was just lying there in an awkward position before quickly getting up he didn’t see the man in front of him no longer and quickly thought to swing his sword to the left, finding the blond standing there. Dhaos seemed to easily catch the sword with his hand, and then that’s when Cless smirked. “Gotcha.”

 

A powerful shockwave came from the blade up close, knocking the older blond back a few steps and then Cless swung his blade again, emitting shockwave after shockwave. All up until he realized that Dhaos was standing behind him and fingers had been wrapped gently around his neck. “You lose.”

 

Cless’ face turned red before he shouted, “Again! We do it again!”

 

Dhaos shook his head and smirked as he let go of the smaller blonde’s neck. “How many times do you think your life is over in battle if your enemy gets the better of you? Just once, correct? Especially with an enemy like this. It matters not the moments we share, I will not go easy on you just because you have a higher importance to me than any other. You have admittedly done well considering what’s... hindering you. However, the opponent in this case seems to enjoy employing dirty methods to rid of his opponents. When we meet him, likely undoubtedly sometime soon, he will show those colors.

 

In the face of true nobility, a fool such as himself shall be easily eliminated.”

 

Cless then nodded before he said, “Then let’s go together, we don’t know what he has planned in the case you’ve arrived...like I said, he went into my mind to find out your weakness. He knows your weakness, Dhaos! Have you forgotten that?!

 

Give me one more chance!”

 

“...”

 

Dhaos frowned slightly, and then said shortly, “Very well. Come, show me your power.”

 

The blond began to wonder a little what would happen if he could imagine his sword channeled with fire, and then when he took a thrust forward, he heard a phrase in his head...

 

He shouted, “Rising Phoenix!”

 

Dhaos stepped to the side, and then Cless swung his sword after him. From one time, to fire causing a trail of flames that his opponent avoided, and then something occurred to him. He came running at the blond who moved around every slash he seemed to make. Then, Dhaos stepped to the side, only to follow up with an uppercut that sent Cless to the floor, and the latter of which got up to his feet quickly, backing up to the wall.

 

This time, Dhaos came for him, moving in from the left, and causing Cless to suddenly shift and move his blade up to block his fist. Dhaos then followed with a giant tidal wave that slammed the blond against the floor, and Cless was back up soon enough, as he came at the Demon King, who was staring at him, red eyes wide as the flames seemed to encircle the sword.

 

The Demon King sighed. “Very well, you may come.”

 

Cless fell over and landed on his face at the surprise announcement. ‘H-huh??”

 

Dhaos smiled slightly, sharing a short laugh to himself before coming over to help Cless up, and subsequently wrapped his arms around him. The smaller blond blushed and smiled, doing the same of the latter of those two actions soon enough. Then, he said, “I think with all of us together, there’s nothing we can’t handle.”

 

The Demon King replied, “Of course.”

 

Then, he seemed to think of something, and said, “...Cless, allow me to look at that injury of yours.”

 

Cless blinked and then nodded. “Uh, sure....”

 

...

 

Eventually, Dhaos had everyone brought to the temple... or rather the pyramid. Cless, of course, goes straight in through the door first, and then before he realizes it, all of them are enveloped in a blue light. The blond-haired high schooler feels someone’s hand grab a hold of his arm, and pull him close, until his face was in the chest of another. There were arms wrapped around him, keeping him close, until he blinked and looked around, seeing that the settings around him had settled into some part of the pyramid. He figures it was a certain someone so his own arms were wrapped around this person as well.

 

Cless feels his face heat up and can’t help a goofy smile before Dhaos says, “It appears that we’ve been separated from the others by some kind of teleportation spell. Doubtlessly done on purpose, but rather than just search for the others everyone will eventually meet up at the same location.”

 

Snapping back to attention the younger blond reluctantly but quickly let go of his boyfriend, and then looked ahead. The whole place was ice blue and much cooler within... it was so odd. Except he felt through strong arms around him once again, and then he found that The Demon King had teleported them to right in front of the last room in the pyramid. Or at least he would have done moreso closely if there wasn’t a large beast suddenly blocking the way.

 

The elder male scoffed to himself and started a spell incantation, as Cless literally ran after the thing, until the giant beast leapt into the air until it seemed to disappear into the ceiling, far out of the confused blonde swordsman’s range. Dhaos shouted, “Get back, now!”

 

Cless hurried over to Dhaos as quick as he could, until an onslaught of icicle hit the floor all around him, preventing him reaching the other blond. Dhaos quickly threw a flurry of blasts at the monster trying to come from underneath them to attack but then has to stop after the surprise casting of a ice wind storm.

 

The swordsman happens to cause some form of damage, landing hit after hit from his blade that was swirling with flame.

 

The Demon King sends a spell that has fire cut through the middle of the ice wind storm and stop it.

 

Just in time to see the blond haired boy slammed into a wall by the claw of the ice monster, or rather as some legends would call it... the Fen Beast. Reisen decided to make his appearance as well, smirking as his summon held Cless against the wall. “Don’t think about trying anything, Dhaos. That human of yours would be so easy to break if my pet decided to press him further into the wall.”

 

“...”

 

Dhaos relaxed his stance, but his eyes looked upon the half-elf darkly, and certainly in a very murderous manner. As if to say the unsaid _If you so much as touch him, you will cease to exist_ and he winds asking, “What is it you truly want, half-elf? You can’t be truly wishing _only_ simply for my defeat...”

 

Reisen smirked and said, “Once I do, I’ll be called a ‘hero’ and no one will have any problem with me unleashing that so-called hidden weapon to unite this world under the leadership of half-elves! With the power of time and space, no one can beat me!”

 

The Demon King wondered why people were so goddamned idiotic. It wasn’t even (technically) a human this time, for fuck’s sake. Then, there was the sound of more growling, as more copies of the beast Reisen had unleashed on the two happened to simply crawl into the room...

 

Cless on the other hand, had his eyes closed and was thinking of a plan on the fly... before he remembered Lundgrom’s lesson. That’s right, the power that he had with the --

 

Cless shook his head, trying to concentrate while being literally in the maws of danger. Thoughts of Dhaos...

 

For some reason he couldn’t help but smile. He could feel Dhaos’ presence...which felt like a cold, foreboding sense of darkness, however it was if it tried to exude the comforting warmth one might expect from from that of light.

 

The power of light and darkness... the power of space and time -- altogether Cless felt his own energy expand outwards, somehow overpowering the demon enough to blow it back with a shockwave of pure radiant energy. The blond fell, finding himself soon in the arms of The Demon King.

 

His clothes had changed into that of an armored knight, or something he’d seen similar to something in a historic documentary. Cless reached for his sword, only to find that it wasn’t there, and figures he must have dropped it. He hears Dhaos say, “You should grab a hold of another blade, if you’ve lost the one you were holding.”

 

The blond’s eyebrows furrowed. “But where am I going to get another?”

 

Dhaos then said no more, except to let go of the younger blond. Then, an ethereal light began to emit from his chest and a hilt appeared, enticing Cless to grab a hold of it to pull it out. The sword itself seemed unnatural, and when he swung it, he could feel the sheer power it held. Deciding not to question it, he ran forward to the torrent of monsters, slicing and dicing at them with more ease, despite their size as well as formidability.

 

The Demon King conjured from his hands a laser that cleared through them hot butter in over 200 degree oil in a sauce pan.

 

Reisen gritted his teeth. He didn’t expect that such the weapon was being kept hidden inside of The Demon King himself. But, wait, no... he could use this to his advantage with that spell of his, and at the thought the half-elf smirked to himself.

 

Up until he was struck in his shoulder by an arrow.

 

...

 

Mars himself had worked at continuing to fully break the seal, and he finally managed to do so... he knew with this he’d be in the good graces of both the demon lord as well as Reisen. After all, once he’s done so, Dhaos will be at full power, and for Reisen’s end...

 

...

 

Chester panted after going through some monsters here and there, but all in all just because he was by himself he needed to do well in keeping his distance. Which was also a crapshoot due to the fact that the hallways themselves seemed proliferated with the damn beasts, not to mention the simple fact that they were narrow as all hell. The best thing he could was to hope that the darkness shadowed him enough (when he wasn’t underneath a lamp) from the monsters walking around.

 

But...nobody was perfect, and the fact remained that even that was too tough for him to manage most of the time. He looked like he’d seen better days nonetheless, finding that his left arm was bleeding as a result of a monster getting the best before he could one-shot kill the damn thing between its eyes. He wondered if everyone _else_ was stuck on striking on their own lonesome, or if it was just him.

 

In the end, the blue-haired high schooler found that he was winding up in a room full of even large monsters... but that wasn’t all. He saw it was the one with Cless, Dhaos...and Reisen within. He quickly hid himself behind a structure, preparing to knock an arrow, when he saw that no one had even so much as noticed him. Chester felt very proud at that fact, and smiled triumphantly to himself.

 

Then he pulled back his last arrow and let it fly free. That should put a damper in that man’s plans. _Heh, aren’t I cool, coming in to save the day like that?! I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces. Especially Cless’ at the sight of seeing one of his partners coming in to save the day!_

 

Said bluenette hears behind him a conceited, “Oh, looks like I found myself a nuisance.”

 

Chester whips around instantly, back flat against the structure that’s blocking him from sight of the rest but not the man with black hair. He is hit with a strange light following suit, and finds himself blinking and eyes narrowing at him. “What did you just do...?!”

 

The man grinned evilly at him, saying, “You’ll see.”

 

The blue-haired male goes to move his legs, until he feels a sudden shooting pain up them and he can’t move them. He hears the man say, “You just used your last arrow and don’t have a high resistance to this type of magic unlike your friends. Looks like you won’t get to have the last laugh...this spell I’ve already used to bring a gruesome end to your friends’ parents.”

 

Chester then asked calmly, “Hey, can you look at me for a second? I just want to know the face of the person who did this to me.”

 

Mars raised an eyebrow, about to walk away but does as Chester asks. Then, the archer throws something at him and it’s too fast for the black-haired man to dodge. He falls to the ground, choking on his own blood as he curses the archer, with the knife lodged in his throat.

 

Chester smirks to himself, before closing his eyes. He’s honestly glad that he was able to be at least useful this time around.

 

Ah, it was starting to rain... or maybe that is... his own tears this time...

 

...

 

_It had started to rain outside, and it was dark. Even the house had been quiet as if a telling of the awful circumstances that had befell today. However, Chester himself was up pretty late after a good talk with the police, accompanied by a seemingly calm Cless. The blue-haired male figured that they’d start an investigation and ask the two, but of course, the killer was at large. Whoever that was probably wasn’t even going after his parents...they were small peanuts, after all. He didn’t know why but something told him deep inside that someone was pursuing Cless. Why else would he require a Guardian Angel?_

 

_He snorted at the thought and still found it incomprehensible, all the same like he did with the way Cless’ parents were murdered like that. To be honest, a quiet fear struck him the same would happen with his own, but they were otherwise too occupied to come home lately, so that probably shouldn’t remain a problem._

 

_He rises to his feet, getting the urge to check on Cless again, but finds that the male isn’t within his room when he opens the door. Then, he rushes, looking all over the house for his best friend and most important person outside of family, but turns up nothing. Without thinking, Chester even rushes outside and that’s where he spots the blond who has been swinging his blade in the dark as well as the rain, apparently._

 

_Chester curses under his breath and starts, “Cless, come on, what do you think you’re doing out here? You’re going to catch a cold in just a shirt and pants.”_

 

_Cless just says, “I’m practicing. My father always told me to keep in shape and never to let my skill fade. Now that he’s no longer with me, I need to take double time. By the way, the funeral is going to be held next month, on the 4th. Can you attend?”_

 

“ _Of course, but--”_

 

_Chester doesn’t even get to finish before the blond’s dropped his sword and he’s walked over to the bluenette to then immerse himself in the male’s arms, fingers digging tightly into the front of his now wet shirt. Cless doesn’t say much, but his broken sobs that were almost completely muffled by the sound of the rain, and his following words said more than enough:_

 

“ _Don’t leave me too, please.”_

 

...

 

Chester knew for certain, this was going to hurt for a myriad of reasons.

 

“I’m sorry, Cless.”

 

The next thing he knew, that’s when the spell activated and the pain was immense as his blood splattered all over the wall and floor. But at least it was quick.

 

...

 

Reisen smirked to himself as the duo seemed occupied by the fearsome creatures he unleashed, and that smirk faded as soon as he saw The Demon King charge up for a spell of very high destructive capabilities. He’d be a fool if he wasn’t able to finish his spell, arrow in his shoulder or not. Something though, that should be a blast from the past as he uttered a few words wisely and _quietly_ underneath his breath as he felt Dhaos’ power return. Now he would be the one who’d defeat the man at his full power, and if that wasn’t enough knew that the memories would be enough to make a moment of weakness.

 

“ _Indignation!_ ”

 

The blond-haired demon was struck by the holy lightning, and it was more than enough to stop the man from casting the spell. But the rage of being struck, caused him to summon a more powerful attack before, now that he felt his full strength return to him. The remaining beasts were shot through with lasers.

 

Cless knew it was his time to strike, and moved when the other blond had lashed out against his enemies. Even though he was tired and he was quite beaten up, in his head he saw the flash of his father executing a certain way of attack. One he was sure he could replicate. “ _REISEN!!!!!_ Take this...feel the force of the ultimate technique of the Alvein-style swordsmanship!”

 

The blond-haired male couldn’t help the rush inside of him, as he knew that the half-elf couldn’t even so much as dodge and he definitely wanted much-needed payback. _And now with me moving so fast you can’t even dodge it! I have you now...!_

 

The swordsman slashed right through, noticing with grim satisfaction with every single hit that landed on the man in front of him, until he finished with a stab through the heart. By the time he was done, no one could deny that there had been red blood splashed on him, and on the ground.

 

Cless then heard, “Say, who do you think you’re attacking?”

 

Dhaos stood in front of him, clutching his chest. A bit of blood trickled down his lips, and Cless felt like he was punched in the stomach as a sudden wave of guilt came over him. He could see the damage done and it didn’t look pretty. But he was frustrated and confused. How...how he could he be lead to do such a thing?!

 

Either way, Cless begins, voice uneven,as tears began to well up and nausea beginning to overtake him, “D-Dhaos, I-I--!!”

 

Dhaos held up a hand to silence him from speaking and the room thereafter turned black and white. Reisen’s eyes widened as he couldn’t so much as move. “ _...This time he will be unable to cast a spell like that. You may finish him properly this time_.”

 

Reisen was baffled as he shouted, “That’s... how can you do something like this?! You were supposed to be consumed by--”

 

The Demon King remarked coldly, “ _You...have severely underestimated me, half-elf, if you...hoped to defeat myself at full strength. You also thought I would allow such a thing to drive myself to madness once more... You are not the one who has such strength. You will see..._ ”

 

Cless then did exactly that, and this time his attack hit the right person on the mark, with no last minute switching or even such spell trickery. When he was finished, time resumed to normally flow, and the half-elf gasped out his last breath before he fell dead. The blond quickly turned his attention to the other, hurrying to Dhaos’ side.

 

Dhaos had, in the meanwhile, seemed to be leaning against a wall as he said, looking at Cless, “ _Such a strong sword...even I may have become undone by it, even if I hadn’t known that he possessed the spell at the time. My...ancestor before me had sealed it inside of me, hoping...that one day a human like yourself could wield it so we could easily destroy a common enemy. A sword that only a human could wield, and yet wielding the power of space and time itself..._ ”

 

Then, the whole place began to shake, and Dhaos easily fell over, before being caught by the other blond. “ _Ugh...the sword is doing something to my power... Cless Alvein, you need to... break the seal and distort time...grab the ring...Reisen...unleashed a catastrophe..._ ”

 

Cless lowered him gently onto the floor and shook his head. “Don’t talk anymore, please! Just wait until Chester, Mint, Arche, and Morrison arrive while I grab the ring. I’ll be right back...”

 

The Demon King nodded a little as the other male got up to run over to where the item in question was sealed. He felt honestly truly tired-- he remembered painfully clearly that his time spent under the seal involved no true form of peaceful sleeping whatsoever. No, the humans knew back then that they could not truly defeat him without being able to strike both his forms--the one physically manifested and the one on The Astral Plane.

 

His full memories of the incident that he tried to block out or ‘throw away’ unbeknownst to that man who broke the seal that had returned refreshed him of it all. He suspected that the foolish half-elf expected him to fall to that trauma, especially when Reisen employed that spell. But he was no longer the same as he was years ago.... thanks to his involvement with these particular brand of humans.

 

Even if Cless’ power hadn’t the ability to heal physical ones, he seemed able to do something more of a spiritual healing of the mind. If it wasn’t for him, he supposed that he’d still have thought that his original idea right after being sealed still had some merit. The original, true idea of his to kill every single last one of those humans for what so many had done to him and his land. He closed his eyes, and knew that he still couldn’t truly forgive them, as well as those who promoted that he was evil, especially those who still did in this day and age. However...hatred breeds only suffering.

 

He hears the sound of the seal break and the blond come over to him, and Dhaos turns his head to see the sad expression on his face. It causes him to think better of him telling the blond-haired boy the fate of Chester. “... _Use it..._ ”

 

Cless takes the blonde's hand and nods silently, even if he didn’t know how.

 

Then, the blond-haired high schooler hears in his head, _Do not forget... these words..._

 

_I will... always..._

 

A light surrounded them both.

 

...

 

_The seal in of itself was a special brand of pain. It was there to immobilize him, mostly, but also to serve as an employment of the method of ‘eternal suffering’. It effectively separated his connection to the Astral Plane, while guaranteeing he wouldn’t die... however, every time The Demon King awoke, that’s when the secondary spell would activate. His body would become pierced with swords made from the magic of light until he’d eventually faint from the blood loss and pain._

 

_He’d remember asking them to stop, at one point out of pure desperation or at least dispel the secondary effect, since they always came to check up on the seal every six months or so, but all they’d do is watch. His hatred had grown as a result, and darkness had truly taken root in his heart, as he lost his mind._

 

As he recalled this, Dhaos heard a thought, reminding him those humans will not live as long as he.

 

Well, if he didn’t already interfere in one’s case already much earlier.

 

...

 

Cless snored very loudly as he slept in class, until he felt an eraser hit his head. He just happened to be a really light sleeper, okay? He groaned and opened his eyes, however, and took a look to see Arche sticking her tongue at him. Chester was giving him an unimpressed look. He sighed and then put his head back on the desk in front of him.

 

“Mister Alvein, though you may be regarded as a ‘hero’ in some cases, I urge you to pay closer attention, lest you incur my heavenly wrath’.”

 

Without even looking, Cless said, “Yes, yes, Mister Lester.”

 

A hand slammed on his desk, making the blond jump up in his seat and see from very up close he was staring into two golden-colored eyes and the person he was staring at had long blue hair. He quickly sat down again, embarrassed. “B-Brambert?!”

 

Brambert scowled at him. “Pathetic. You would stoop so low to make a joke about a member of this faculty who has lost his life?!”

 

Cless put up his hands, saying as well as sweating, “W-wait this is a misunderstanding, I didn’t mean to do anything like that! I didn’t even know he was even dead!”

 

Then, he heard the class murmuring here or there and sighed to himself as Brambert literally glared at him, and Cless thought to himself that it was second only to one of Dhaos’. Speaking of which... where was he?

 

This was the wrong time to space out apparently, however, because Brambert had been saying something and now his face turned red with indignant anger at the fact that he was being clearly flat out ignored. He leaned in closer, which Cless was sure had been a clear violation of personal space. Quickly the blond-haired male jumped up in surprise (again) and found that this wasn’t exactly the greatest of ideas.

 

Considering that it wound up with him accidentally hitting the blue-haired male in the nose with his head and causing him to fall forward just enough to kiss him by accident.

 

“You... _deviant_!”

 

_SLAP._

 

...

 

Cless nursed a smack mark on his face, sighing to himself afterschool as his two friends walked with him. Chester spoke up, saying, “You know, I didn’t know that the ‘elegant, older’ kind were your type. I guess this means I need to polish some of my literary skills.”

 

Arche said, “Mhm! I mean I’m all set and all but I remember one time I fantasized--”

 

Cless shouted, face red, “CUT IT THE HELL OUT ALREADY YOU TWO!!!! It was an accident. A C C I D E N T!!! Even if...even if the teacher flat out smacked me... it wasn’t my fault...!”

 

_Urgh, because of this I got a lot of extra homework..._

 

Chester then said, shaking his head, “A likely story.”

 

Arche nodded. “Mhm, mhm.”

 

A vein popped on Cless’ forehead. “Both of you are devils...!”

 

The blue-haired male laughed and said, “Don’t take it too seriously, it’s just more fun to pretend it wasn’t an accident.”

 

Then Cless had him in a noogie as the other laughed, saying, “Why you...!”

 

...

 

Cless was about to head towards his home, when Chester said, “Hey, Cless. Do you think you’ll need some company? I mean, you’re going to be all by yourself, since...”

 

The blond smiled weakly as he realized what he was implying. He nodded quietly and just started to walk faster, trying to ignore the clenching at his chest. Even in this version, it appeared that his parents were deceased. He didn’t even question himself jumping to conclusions as he had a dire feeling that it was right anyways.

 

The blond haired male walked into his house and sighed, remembering some things from time to time. He wondered how his parents died in this time... but he doesn’t really want to know, and heads upstairs, as Chester follows him. They both come into his room and he notices that on the window sill there is still the columbine flower in the glass case. But it’s in his _real_ room, in his _real_ house.

 

Cless looked shocked. “Chester, when did I...?!”

 

Chester blinked, fiddling with a necklace of his before saying, “You don’t remember? A man with golden blond hair gave it to you after your parents died. I believe it was that gardner. It’s strange, though... it’s been a month and it hasn’t looked a day older. He also said another name for it was a ‘nightingale flower’--”

 

Cless then suddenly shouted, grabbing a hold of the blunette’s shoulders, “CHESTER YOU MUST TELL ME WHERE HE IS RIGHT NOW!!”

 

The blue-haired male rubbed one of his ears. “... Honestly, do you plan on making _me_ deaf? Maybe I should just say I totally forgot where he lives.”

 

The blond haired male stared him down. “Now you _must_ tell me...”

 

Chester seemed to realize his mistake and facepalmed. “Oh crap...well it’s a bit late, so how about we turn this into an impromptu sleep over? We can search for the guy tomorrow. I know I left a pair somewhere of pjs over here...”

The blue-haired male then asked, “Hey Cless, when did your left eye become grey? I thought it had always been brown...”

 

Cless hurriedly said, “Chester, let’s just sleep, okay? It’s too much of a long story.”

 

The blond also noticed that he had a certain sword lying against the wall and wondered why he’d be so stupid to leave something so dangerous out like that.

 

...

 

Cless turned in his bed and grumbled before he opened his eyes, to see pink hair, then he grumbled, turning and rolling to the other side of his bed. But he was stopped by something, or rather someone else’s body in the way. This person had blue hair.

 

The blond closed his eyes, grumbling some more before he realized he had to get up early for practice and his eyes snapped open, as he sat up quickly in bed. _Wait a minute..._

 

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!”

 

...

 

They were all soon assembled in Cless’ livingroom, and the blond found that Mint was amongst their number, but only after she emerged from the bathroom, subsequently apologizing for the intrusion. Hell, even Morrison was in his house, having walked in through the door just then, and he wondered if it was just going to be everyone inviting themselves over because Chester must have blabbed.

 

Said adult of the group frowned and looked at the blond, stating, “Careless of you, friend of my adopted daughter or not. A demon could have walked straight in through the door and you would have been none the wiser.”

 

It suddenly occurred to Cless he forgot to lock the door as well. Chester said, “Sorry, I wound up telling Arche and she blabbed to half the damn town because she can’t keep her mouth shut.”

 

Arche snapped at him, “Shut up, you! I only told Mint, and Morrison happened to be just listening, that’s all!”

 

“Oh yeah? Who _else_ might have been listening then?!”

 

“Maybe your MOM!”

 

“Why you little...!”

 

Cless cut in, pinching the bridge of his nose. “GUYS! Seriously, is this the time for this?!”

 

Mint sweatdropped and said, “Cless has a point. I mean... we all don’t really know what’s going on. One moment we were elsewhere and now we’re here.”

 

Chester crossed his arms, asking, “What are you talking about??”

 

Morrison said, “We’ll explain later. We need to find Dhaos.”

 

The blue-haired man nodded, saying, “Right. I’ll lead the way.”

 

...

 

Said male lead them to the back of Cless’ house and thereupon doing so discovered that there was a small dirt trail leading into a forest. Chester said, “I followed him once because... I felt like I should for some reason and this is the road.”

 

Cless just sprinted right in without even thinking, prompting loud exclamations from the rest of his rest of his group. Arche, going after him on her broom, said, “Does that guy ever think?!”

 

Everyone else was pretty much running after him. Morrison shouts, “Fool, don’t you know there are demons in this forest?!”

 

The blond didn’t stop for anything that looked at him strangely, because he could see a castle in the distance and knew that it was Dhaos’ place. Although he wondered how he hid a castle for so long here without anyone noticing.

 

As soon as Cless reached the end of the dirt road, something wrapped around his left leg, easily lifting him in the air and hurling him straight into the castle gate. “URGH!”

 

Demitel smirked, coming out of the shadows as Cless fell to the ground and struck him hard enough with his whip to make the blond cry out. “Honestly, you humans are so dumb. Trying to kill Lord Dhaos, again? I’ll make you have these delicious sounds being made as I whip you into submission!”

 

Arche then exclaimed, flying in before Cless can get up, “Wow perverts like you need to go to hell! _Eruption!_ ”

 

The once half-elf turned demon turned his head, blinking, “Wait I’m not a p--urk!”

 

Cless stood to his feet as his friends came in, and Demitel was on the ground, blew out a puff of smoke before falling unconscious. The blond grinned sheepishly. “Thanks Arche, I didn’t want this to get messy. Come on, let’s go!”

 

Everyone followed the blond, with Morrison adding words like, “You shouldn’t really go to him, you don’t know what will happen...” or “At least come up with a plan!” but obviously those were ignored. Chester was mighty curious as well and too impatient to wait.

 

They all soon found themselves in the garden, until they heard a voice call out to them. It was Demitel again. “Halt, you fools! I’ll kill you all!”

 

Then the demon summoned almost suddenly an infinite amount of demons, instantly surrounding the group. Everyone got out their weapons, Morrison and Arche were already chanting spells.

 

“ _Stop this madness at once. What foolishness is this_?”

 

A tall man in a white t-shirt with folded sleeves, form-fitting green pants, and sandals emerged from behind a tree. His hair had been pinned up and it was clear that he was working on the garden himself, only to be very displeased to find that there was a battle about to erupt here. After seeing who it was, his ire only doubled as he snapped at Demitel, “ _You fool! What do you think you’re doing?!_ ”

 

Demitel, looking confused, sweatdropped and asked, “What do you mean by that...?”

 

Cless then quickly ran over in his excitement to come over to hug Dhaos. Demitel stepped in the way, effectively blocking his path and cracking his whip. “...Obviously these humans are going to try to trick you and kill you!”

 

Dhaos gestured for Demitel to come closer and when he did, knocked him right upside the head with his fist. The other demons he summoned suddenly went away. “ _I apologize. He’s an idiot._ ”

 

Cless in the meanwhile stepped around the demon nursing the bump on his head and successfully hugged Dhaos. “......”

 

The younger blond exclaimed, “Dhaos, I missed you! I was afraid that something had happened...”

 

The Demon King blinked and smiled a little, as he returned the hug. “I am pleased to see you are faring well yourself.”

 

Morrison raised a brow. “Is there some kind of relationship I should be informed of?”

 

...

 

Cless spoke up as Dhaos had them accommodated within his own home, “So the ring has the ability to distort time and space, and even rewrite it depending... but only could be used once, huh? I’m surprised no one had taken advantage of it before stealing it from you.”

 

Chester blinked a bit, before asking, “Okay, why does everyone get what’s going on except for me?”

 

Dhaos simply stated, “At the time we came into possession of the object, you were already dead. The ring can only bring back one individual important to the one who uses it and that is entirely not by their choice, nor is it by anything but random.”

 

Cless’ eyes widened. “WHAT?!”

 

The taller blond quickly said, “We should be thankful of the circumstances as they are. I didn’t inform you because I didn’t want that to effect what could happen. I will understand if you are miffed with me.”

 

The blue-haired male went quiet. Then he began to stand to his feet, moving to the door, “Seems like I’m going to be nothing but a burden. Better make it quick and get out of your hair.”

 

Cless hurried over to him and stopped him from leaving with a hug. “Where do you think you’re going?! You’re important to me Chester. Nevermind what was said, but I’m saying it now! Doesn’t that mean something to you?! Because it sure as hell means something to me!”

 

Chester sighed, and realized he was being a bit foolish. “Sorry, Cless, I’m not sure what came over me.”

 

Arche suddenly cut in saying, “I think now’s time for a perfect trip to the hotsprings! Luckily, I already set us up for a date. You’re all welcome.”

 

Dhaos’ eyebrows furrowed. “How...?”

 

Mint smiled, saying, “Let us just say she has her ways.”

 

...

 

Cless sighed to himself as he soaked in the water, and looked all around... they had reserved this one spot for friends of Rhea only, while on the other side was the cloth blocking them from the girls’ view. He was glad no one asked about the fake eye, because he didn’t want to put bad memories on anyone’s mind anymore. Now, they get to relax, and he was just waiting for Dhaos to come out from the cloth, but as usual the man was reluctant to even go to do something he perceived as ‘too invasive’.

 

On the other hand, Cless didn’t expect some others to come. For example...

 

Demitel suddenly said, “You know, I was thinking that perhaps I would be forgiven if I checked up on Miss Rhea. It has been awfully quiet in there.”

 

Brambert then spoke up, “You demons really are perverts. Have you no shame?!”

 

Morrison then sighed, saying, “He’s a man, let him do what he wants. When someone is that young they have to let out all their passions.”

 

The blue-haired elf looked at him like he was an idiot. “He’s a demon. I wouldn’t even be here if my wife hadn’t suggested to accept this invitation.”

 

Chester sighed and then cut in, putting his hand on his shoulder,”Look, I was told apparently you gave me that new bow I have in my house. I wanted to thank you.”

 

“Of course. As a fellow archer myself, I recognized your strength, despite you being a human.”

 

Demitel looked at Cless, asking, “Don’t you want to check up on Mint?”

 

Chester snorted, asking, “Yeah, don’t you?”

 

Dhaos himself came and frowned disapprovingly at Demitel as well as Chester. Unlike everyone else, he was wearing a bathrobe, while it was just a bit short so he could soak his legs in at least. He says to Demitel, “ _Don’t you dare get him involved in something so disgusting._ ”

 

Then he reprimands Chester, “ _You should know better._ ”

 

Morrison snorted, chipping in, “Do you hear that boys? The Demon King himself is telling you to not perform certain evils, although considering the term ‘evil’ at hand...”

 

Dhaos snapped at him, “ _Ironic you say that, considering evil lurks in the hearts of men._ ”

 

The red head said, “Well, you are a man.”

 

Both of them sneered and glared at each other, before Cless said, “Come on guys, cut it out! We’re trying to have fun here. Morrison, being rude to Dhaos is going to get you hurt. I can’t stand it anymore so knock it off!”

 

Morrison seemed to concede, saying, “... You do have a point.”

 

Then he said something very faintly afterwards, however he was sure a certain someone could hear it, beyond the two elves in the group. Dhaos’ face turned pink and he growled, “ _How_ _ **dare**_ _you. Do you think it’s funny attempting to provoke me? I am The Demon King and I will show you why it is not a title just to be thrown around._ ”

 

Demitel’s eyes narrowed before materializing his weapon out of nowhere. “Where’s your modesty now, human?!”

 

Brambert suddenly stood up, shouting, “Stand down, the lot of you!”

 

Chester sighed to himself. “We’re still just as high tension as ever, huh?”

 

Demitel then suddenly quipped, “And you’re as useless as ever.”

 

“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!”

 

Cless facepalmed. “Come on, SERIOUSLY! We’re supposed to be relaxing but everyone is trying to provoke each other into a fight! But you know what, Demitel if you say something like that to Chester again, I swear to god...”

 

Brambert snapped, “If it wasn’t for human folly, this would be over by now! In fact, a lot of things wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for human folly!”

 

Dhaos rose a hand to his head. “ _I’m... too tired for this._ ”

 

The blond-haired would-be swordsman felt a vein pop on his forehead as he said, “Guys, please...cut it out! Who the hell cares who’s what, none of that matters. All that matters is that we’re here and alive!”

 

Cless then went to place himself by Dhaos’ side, asking, “Are you alright?”

 

...

 

Rhea sighed to herself. “Boys will be boys, it seems...”

 

Mint sweatdropped a little, and she was pretty much glad to not be in there. Not that she’d want to see what was going on if she was in the first place. “Maybe, but sometimes I feel like such things are too much and can cause pain if people aren’t careful.”

 

Arche moved closer to hug Mint, rubbing her head against her for a bit, not noticing the way Mint’s face turns completely red like the rest of her, and saying, “Mm, yeah, but hey if they want to learn the hard way then I guess that it’s up to them to figure it out.”

 

Arsia then said, “I’m really hoping that they’ll be less hardheaded by the time they’re done.”

 

The pink-haired half-elf then grinned. “Speaking of hardheads...”

 

The blond-haired half-elf smiled at Arche. “What could you be possibly implying, dear Arche?”

 

Arche sweatdropped a little and raised her hands up, as she exclaimed, “Uwaa, she’s scarier than Mint when she’s mad!!”

 

...

 

After everyone formally apologized to each other, everyone seemed to relax for once and enjoy (mostly) each other’s presence during dinner. After dinner, he heard that he was invited to see the garden in the company of both Dhaos and Chester.

 

He came outside to see the other two talking, and then Dhaos just all but suddenly collapsed, forcing Chester to catch him. Cless ran up to the two, asking, “What happened?!”

 

Chester shook his head. “He all but fainted; I’m not sure why.”

 

Demitel suddenly came onto the scene, saying, “It’s because of that sword, when you used it he was able to recover, just barely, but...now he’s like this. It’s probably also due to that battle, and his memories coming back-- he’s not used to it yet. He slips unconscious if there’s too much stress. But, even so... when you guys came he was less stressed and fainted less than he would usually-- well until that huge argument. But anyway, I suppose you all should stick around more. My lord could use humans like you.”

 

Cless moved to help Chester carry Dhaos. “Okay... let’s take him to his room. Don’t worry Chester, I know where that is.”

 

Demitel smirked.

 

Chester snapped, “Don’t. Say. A. Word.”

 

Cless smiled to himself, glad that at least somethings had turned out okay, even though some would need some work ...but confident that whatever came their way be something they can all face it together. Right now, though, they all needed to face some good sleep.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading all of that!! Hopefully you can expect more in the future, if you enjoyed it, that is. Aha...


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